November 2020 Edition

NAPE ONE-DAY TRAINING FOR OIL & GAS MEDIA PROFESSIONALS
The Nigerian Association of Petroleum
Explorationists (NAPE) recently hosted a
Workshop for Media Professionals
covering energy and the oil and gas
sectors of the Nigerian economy as well
as oil and gas professionals working in
t h e C o r p o r a t e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
departments in oil and gas companies.
The theme of the workshop was
'Accessing Quality Information & Data
Jour nalism for Oil & Gas Media
Professionals' and it held virtually on
Tuesday September 29, from 11:00 am.
Speakers at the one-day virtual event
were, George Oguachuba, Executive
Director, Commercial & Strategy, Total
Exploration & Production Ltd. who spoke
o n t h e t h e m e , E x p l o r a t i o n a n d
Production Value Chain Business and
Key stakeholders; Yvette Dimiri, Growth
Editor, Stears Business, delivered a
paper titled Data and Digital Journalism:
Effective Tools for Data Driven Reporting
and Toyin Akinosho, FNAPE, Publisher
African Oil + Gas Report who spoke on
Oil and Gas Reporting in the World of
Fake News.
In his Opening remarks at the event,
NAPE President, Mr. Alex Tarka, FNAPE,
said ''NAPE's rationale for hosting the
workshop is to enrich the quality of the
reportage of events in the oil and gas
space by facilitating in depth deliberate
conversations to address and close the
gaps and opportunities in interviews,
messaging, reporting and overall
coverage of the oil and gas industry in
Nigeria by media professionals''. He
added that ''the oil and gas industry is
highly technical in its processes and
operations. It is important that the
reportage of events in the oil and gas
space is accomplished by oil and gas
media professionals with competence
and capacity''
Mr. Tarka further stated that, ''Data
Journalism beyond the visual and
statistical representation it entails, is an
important resource for journalists and
indeed oil and gas media professionals to
ensure accurate representation of events
especially in a data driven industry like
the oil and gas industry.''
In his presentation titled Exploration and
Production Value Chain Business and
K e y s t a k e h o l d e r s , M r. G e o r g e
Oguachuba said ''the oil and gas industry
generates 70 percent of Nigeria's annual
revenue and that the sector accounts for
$100bn of total real GDP and employs
over 400,000 people across the value
chain''. He also spoke on the Petroleum
Industry Bill saying its passage would
boost exploration activities in the
country.
Mr. Oguachuba added that the Federal
Government's bid to attain the three
million barrels a day production by 2023
may not be realized unless it addresses
the fiscal terms of its Production Sharing
Contracts (PSCs) with international oil
companies (IOCs) and other investors in
the country's upstream petroleum sector.
He also picked holes in the amended
fiscal terms of the PSCs, maintaining that
the structure does not allow for
appreciable profits for the IOCs who take
the greater part in the risk sharing
agreement
Speaking while delivering her paper
titled, Data and Digital Journalism:
Effective Tools for Data Driven Reporting,
Yvette Dimiri emphasized the need for
media houses to adopt digital journalism
with a view to simplifying their write-ups
to their readers. She shared new tools for
digital Journalism, challenges of data
journalism in the oil and gas industry
especially data sourcing and provided a
catalogue of credible resources for data
journalism in oil and gas.
Toyin Akinosho in his paper with the title,
Oil and Gas Reporting in the World of
F a k e N e w s a d m o n i s h e d e n e rg y
correspondents to be wary of fake news
which he said can cause massive
mistrust and confusion.
The Workshop which was moderated by
NAPE's Irrepressible Publicity Secretary
Mr. Abdullateef Amodu and Wole
Famurewa, former West Africa Editor at
CNBC Africa had over 40 participants in
attendance.
The workshop is NAPE's Corporate
Social Responsibility initiative to enable
the growth of the oil and gas reporting
competence by providing free master
class training for oil and gas media
professionals by world class speakers on
germane themes.
NAPENEWS | NOVEMBER 2020 | 11