The Group Chief Executive Officer of OandO Plc, Wale Tinubu has disclosed that the oil firm is partnering with the Lagos State Government to deploy 5,000 electric buses for public transportation in the state.
Tinubu said this in an interview with CNBC Africa on the sidelines of the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He said the decision to invest in electric vehicles, particularly for public transportation, is informed by the company’s commitment to adopting cleaner energy solutions as part of its ‘just’ energy transition drive.
He makes a case for a ‘just transition’ over decarbonization in Africa as the continent “is a victim of global warming,” bearing the brunt of climate change while contributing only about 3% of global emissions.
He stressed that Africa cannot decarbonize or abandon its large deposits of fossil fuels for clean energy sources while the majority of its citizens wallow in energy poverty.
The arguments for decarbonization are as important as the arguments for a just transition, and that transition has to recognize the fact that in Africa 45% of the people have no access to electricity or energy products so our first step really must be to use what we need, which means that we need to use our gas as part of the energy mix to service the needs of our continent and that we need to do so as a transitional fuel whilst we work with an energy mix”
He noted that Oando, being a major player in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is deploying EVs as a “carbon capture technique” to contribute to the global decarbonization campaign.
“For every modicum of carbon we put into the economy, into the world and the environment, we are also taking that out by ensuring that we have carbon capture techniques as well as ensuring that our clean energy offering to as part of our products and services is high so we’re focusing a lot on e-vehicles,” he explained.
He disclosed that the company will deploy 5,000 electric buses to Lagos in its contribution to helping Nigeria transition its public transport system from combustion engines to electric vehicles.
“We are using gas as a transitional fuel to create electricity to generate the power to power buses, transport is 10% of global emissions so if we tackle public transport we would be able to reduce emissions by 5% almost immediately and the first step we’re doing now is also working on a public system of being able to transit the bus system in Nigeria from diesel or petrol to electric vehicles starting with a project which we’re working on with the Lagos state government as a pilot case where we expect to see up to 5,000 buses, e-buses being deployed in our streets.”
Tinubu also hinted at the potential deployment of artificial intelligence, AI, in the company’s next drilling campaign, as the company aims to enhance operational efficiency through technology.
He explained that the deployment of AI has become necessary to effectively utilize resources, and improve overall performance in Oando’s upcoming projects.
“It (AI) is a big game-changer. For example, in our drilling operations, we have to make serious decisions that have a high impact on cost. And being able to throw in all the potential answers to our questions based on old experiences by having a whole sequence of possibilities that can be taken through artificial intelligence. So it is something we are looking forward to deploying in our next drilling campaign,” he disclosed.
