ExxonMobil, Others Must Collaborate Effectively To Boost Our Oil Sector – Timipre Sylva

Posted by: Folamidavid in News, Politics Nov 20, 2019

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has urged ExxonMobil and other International Oil Companies (IOCs) to collaborate effectively to make sure the oil and gas sector is lucrative and efficient in Nigeria.

Timipre revealed this in a recent statement signed by Alhaji Garba Deen Muhammad, his Special Adviser on Media, in Abuja.

He begged ExxonMobil and other oil firms to keep ensuring full representation at state events that would strengthen their partnership

He also vowed to sustain the relationship with the Federal Government via the Ministry of Petroleum Resources because “there is nobody who doesn’t want to invest in Nigeria.”

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Sylva was born in Brass, Bayelsa (formerly Rivers State, of which Bayelsa State was split off from in 1996), and was educated there and in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria. He was a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly in the 1990s.

Sylva graduated from the University of Port Harcourt with distinctions in English (Linguistics) in 1986. At the time, he was the best graduating student from his department and departmental valedictorian. He was subsequently awarded a Doctor in International Relations (Honoris causa) by the UBIS University in 2011.

Mr Sylva’s political career started in 1992 when he won a seat in the House of Assembly election representing Brass constituency in old Rivers State. At the time, he was the youngest of all the members in the house of Assembly. His political career continued when he was appointed as the Special Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum in 2004 under the auspices of Dr Edmund Dakouru. He continued in that position until he resigned to join the PDP gubernatorial primaries in 2006 in Bayelsa State, in which he placed, second behind Dr Goodluck Jonathan. After the PDP presidential primaries election and Dr Jonathan was appointed as a running mate to HE Umaru Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory, the gubernatorial candidacy for PDP became vacant, and conventional wisdom took the better of the political actors and Mr Sylva was elevated to occupy the position of PDP gubernatorial candidate.

As a candidate of the People’s Democratic Party Sylva won the Bayelsan gubernatorial election on May 29, 2007 and succeeded Goodluck Jonathan who went on to the position of Vice President. During his inauguration he said that Bayelsa was “the least developed industrially and commercially” of all 36 states.