Nigeria’s NNPC Limited and Algeria’s Sonatrach have signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a formal framework for cooperation in research, development, and innovation — a partnership that brings together two of Africa’s largest national oil companies in a joint push to keep the continent’s petroleum industry technologically competitive.
The MoU was signed by NNPC Executive Vice President for Business Services Sophia Mbakwe and Sonatrach Managing Director Khodjah Mohamed, with the agreement developed in collaboration with Nigeria’s Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). NNPC Group CEO Bashir Bayo Ojulari, represented by the company’s Chief Financial Officer Adedapo Segun, called for research and development to form a central pillar of African oil and gas strategy. “Collaboration in research and development is of strategic importance. The cost of innovation might be high, but the cost of obsolescence would be greater,” he said.
Ojulari called for a unified strategic framework across member countries of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) to pool resources, integrate data, and share risks, while urging rapid adoption of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and advanced engineering to improve upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. APPO Secretary General Farid Ghezali reinforced the need for research outputs to be practical and directly applicable: “We must ensure that our research delivers solutions that are practical and of direct use to Africa.”
Chief Innovation Officer of NNPC RTI and incoming APPO R&D Forum Chairman Rasheed Ojulari said the forum would give immediate priority to joint programmes in upstream optimisation, artificial intelligence, decarbonisation processes, and industrial systems development. The PTDF Executive Secretary, Prof. Shu’aibu Shehu Aliyu, highlighted the partnership’s value in supporting decarbonisation and environmental protection work across APPO’s member states.
Source: allafrica.com