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The preliminaries of the football event of the 19th Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Games 2024 kicked off on Monday at the football pitch of the SHELL Residential Area in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Champions Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation defeated Petroleum Training Institute, Warri 1-0.
In the second match of the opening day, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulation Commission, played out a goalless draw with Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority. TotalEnergies defeated SEPLAT 2-0 to go top of Group 3.
The matches continue Tuesday (today) with TotalEnergies taking on NLNG in the early morning fixture. PTI and Shell will slug it out in the second match of the day. ARADEL will lock horns with NCDMB in a Group 4 match, while Chevron and NMDPRA do battle in the last encounter of Match-Day 2 preliminaries.
After playing out a barren draw against NMDPRA, captain of NUPRC, Kenneth Gbuhu said their game plan was to win their opening match. He remarked that he and his teammates had put the draw behind them.
“Our attention has now shifted to our next game against Chevron. We know what is required of us. It’s victory or nothing.”
Representing the NNPC management, the Deputy Manager, People and Culture, Aishatu Abba Kyari, showered encomiums on the organising committee, saying the programme for the events was flawless.
First Vice Chairman of the Organising Committee, Chido Okoli, said the decision to hold the preliminaries in Rivers and the final in Abuja was based on the need to have participating teams experience different locations.
“Most of the Games have always held in Lagos in the past, due largely to logistics convenience. But we have chosen to come to Rivers because the facilities are here and it is good for the reputation of Port Harcourt as the oil city of Nigeria.”