In the next 18 months, Nigeria will end the importation of refined petroleum products for its local consumption needs and commence the export of white products from its own refineries to other countries.
Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), stated this Tuesday in Abuja, while unveiling a new operational structure for NNPC, which he said would cut costs, save funds and end waste in the Nigerian oil and gas system, thereby putting it in a better positioning for profit making rather than its current loss making status.
Kachikwu said that President Muhammadu Buhari has already approved the final phase for restructuring the NNPC into seven coordinating units, including an upstream company, a downstream company, a gas and power company, as well as another company in charge of refineries.
There will also be a ventures company, finance and services company, and a corporate services company, all of which will be independently run under the headship of chief executive officers (CEOs) that will report to the GMD of NNPC, who is also the minister of state for petroleum resources.
BusinessDay leart that those appointed to head the newly created units within the NNPC are Bello Rabiu, CEO, NNPC Downstream; Henry Ikem-Obih, CEO, NNPC Upstream; Anibor Kragha, CEO, NNPC Refineries; Saidu Mohammed, CEO, NNPC Gas and Power; Babatunde Adeniran, CEO, NNPC Ventures; Isiaka Abdulrazaq, CEO, NNPC Finance and Services, and Isa Inuwa, the executive head of NNPC Corporate services.
Under these companies will be 21 different ventures, which Kachikwu said would function as incubation centres for profitable business development, with the possibility of being run as government concerns in partnership with private investors or traded publicly on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He also noted that the new NNPC structure would allow agencies such as the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to deal with marketing, while another company will specifically handle all transactions relating to pipelines.
According to him, “these divisional breakups will be more business focused in order to deliver results on the basis of given timelines, as more companies will create more work for an overstaffed and sometimes idle workforce without necessarily getting anyone fired but getting people busier.”
The minister also noted that the Corporation’s upstream segment alone was in debt to a tune of $5.7 billion, and that an agreement was being negotiated to be finalized in the next four to five months for paying up and closing up the year to year gap in debts by spreading it across several years, including all arrears.
This also includes a plan to exit the Cash Call arrangement, where money earned by the federal government through dollar proceeds from crude oil sales are often totally committed into funding joint venture projects, by the end of 2016 so that the sector can independently source its funds without government involvement.
On the security and restoration of pipelines, the minister said the the Trans Forcados pipeline will be back in full operation in the next two months, and that the over 30-year Brass pipeline which has past its integrity status for pipelines and has not worked for about five to six years, would be recovered and brought back to life.
