Shell to encourage investors in low carbon energy development

The managing director/country chairman, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Osagie Okunbor, said Shell would encourage investors to invest in low-carbon and advance technologies development.

Okunbor said this yesterday at the SPDC’s Joint Venture and External Relations Road Show in Abuja.

“Shell sustainability is about delivering energy in a responsible way to meet the world’s growing needs,’’ he said, noting that SPDC shared its benefits with the communities where it was operating, as this would increase trust and lasting relationships with them.

He said the investment in low-carbon energy solutions would increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions to the atmosphere, saying to encourage this type of technology, SPDC joint venture had sponsored three university students to Shell Eco-Marathon programme.

He explained that in Shell Eco-Marathon Challenge, students from all over the world were being tested to design and build race efficient vehicles.

According to him, Joseph Agbamoro, a 400-level mechanical engineering student of University of Lagos built a proto type battery/ electric car called Shell-Eco Marathon.

He said that this was made possible because of the assistance SPDC had been giving to students all over the world, saying that to ensure its activities moved smoothly, it partnered government, civil society and non-governmental organisations.

Okunbor said last year, SPDC’s fifth edition of external relations road show and exhibition, held in Abuja, cost the Shell N2 billion.

He listed a 200-seater library in Port Harcourt, health centres at Oloibiri in Bayelsa, and upgrading of sports facilities in five secondary schools in Delta State as SPDC projects.

Earlier Agbamoro, the student who built the battery/electric car, said it was built for energy efficiency and could carry only one person.

According to him, the car runs on battery, which lasts for eight hours when charged, as it could go for as long as 1000 kilometres if its battery was fully charged.

He said the car was made of 90 percent local content sourced from Nigeria.