Adewale Sanyaolu
A new dawn awaits the Nigerian oil and gas industry with the change of guard at the state oil firm, where Mr. Mele Kolo Kyan, its new Group Managing Director has pledged to end the era of profligate spending on fuel subsidy put at $5bilion in 2018. He said the wastages will end when he finally fixes the four refineries by 20/23.
The new NNPC boss while reeling out his 8 point agenda also promised to fight corruption and enthrone a regime of transparency as he takes over the affairs of the State oil corporation.
Prior to now, the operations of the NNPC among Nigerians and stakeholders have often been described as opaque with many of its transactions largely out of tune with international best practices.
In 2015, for instance an independent investigative analysis by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NGRI) revealed that over $32 billion oil revenue was lost to NNPC’s mismanagement of Domestic Crude Allocation (DCA), opaque revenue retention practices and corruption-ridden oil-for-product swap agreements.
Furthermore, the analysis found no evidence that NNPC, between 2004 and 2014, forwarded to the treasury any revenues from sales of Okono crude with volumes of over 100 million barrels, with an estimated value of $12.3 billion.
Kyari, a Geologist who assumes duty as the 19th Group Managing Director of NNPC, is certainly coming on board at a time Nigerians are demanding more transparency and openness in the affairs of the state oil corporation.
It was for this reason and many more that the new NNPC GMD reeled out his plans to hit the ground running, with his eight core areas the NNPC under his management will focus on.
Synopsis of eight point agenda
The eight core strategic focus areas according to Kyari are; unveiling a roadmap to foster NNPC’s global excellence, leveraging technology and innovation, revive Nigeria’s refineries to stop ‘Painful’ Importation of petroleum products, revamping all downstream infrastructure, grow Nigeria’s hydrocarbon reserve base to 40 billion barrels, exploit untapped opportunities in renewable energy, improved transparency, accountability, and performance excellence in NNPC and fight against corruption.
The GMD equally said as part of plans to achieve a sustained performance of the NNPC, the Corporation under his watch will unveil a roadmap that would guide its growth objectives both in the short and long term.
“In the next couple of weeks, the COOs will join me to unveil the NNPC Roadmap towards global excellence. The roadmap will guide our aspirations to achieve sustained outstanding performance to meet the short and long term growth objectives of the Corporation as we transit to a National Energy Champion.
We will continue to adopt technology and innovation to refine our business processes in line with best industry practice, improve efficiency, block leakages and create desirable outcomes that will strengthen the NNPC brand.
To build this brand, there is need to improve the synergy of teams and commitment to business objectives towards a unified enterprise view.”
Refineries turnaround
He said it was painful that nearly all our petroleum products requirements are imported despite the existence of our three (3) refineries and the numerous attempts by successive governments to encourage the establishment of private refineries. This, he said has to stop.
“We will see to the successful completion of the ongoing rehabilitation of our refineries within record time. We will further encourage the establishment of private refineries either as independents or some form of public private collaboration. We will also provide every necessary support to the Dangote Refinery in order achieve timely startup.
This, we believe, will help in making our nation a net exporter of petroleum products within the life of this administration.”
Revamping downstream infrastructure/oil reserve growth
“We will continue with the revamping and rehabilitation of all our downstream infrastructure particularly our pipeline network which has been subject of persistent attacks by vandals. As a matter of responsibility, the NNPC will continue to ensure availability of petroleum products to our citizens despite the huge challenges associated with this task.”
In line with the aspiration to grow our Nation’s hydrocarbon reserve base to 40 billion barrels by the year 2020. We will sustain the tempo of the ongoing exploration campaign in the frontier basins, especially the Gongola Basin where His Excellence Mr. President flagged off the spudding of the Kolmani River II early this year.
We will particularly focus on the growth of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and to make it among the top three crude oil producing companies in the country within three (3) years.
On the gas sector, our strategic aspiration is to open the domestic market further to support improved power generation and the growth of gas-based industries. NNPC will be ready to partner and support stakeholders along the power value chain to guarantee improved power generation and transmission and boost industrial growth.’’
Focus on renewable energy
“NNPC will seek to exploit the untapped opportunities in Renewable energy value chain to promote investment diversification in clean energy. This is aim at transforming the corporation from Oil and Gas entity to an energy Corporation.
We will broaden our involvement in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitment of the Federation in order to further elevate citizens’ participation in the business of our National Oil Company.
Improved transparency/accountability
“Under my leadership, NNPC will strive to be more credible, competent and accountable institution that manages the oil resources on behalf of the citizens of Nigeria in accordance with its mandate and the core persuasions of President Muhammadu Buhari.
We have a strong foundation to build on, and willing partners to work with. Building on our experience in EITI reporting and close collaboration with NEITI, NNPC is now committed to joining the EITI’s targeted effort on State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) transparency as a means of sharing best practices and improving disclosure of information on the management of the nation’s oil and gas revenues.
For NNPC to maintain positive image, more transparency, shared values of integrity and professionalism must permeate every level of the corporation.”
Fight Against Corruption
‘‘We know that corruption cannot thrive without discretion. We will ensure all avenues for discretion are eliminated by continuously improving our systems and processes. Where serious infractions occur, we will ensure the full weight of the law is applied.
The COOs and I will take full responsibility to ensure that the necessary enablers are in place to guarantee the excellent performance of businesses under their respective portfolios.
We shall provide the needed leadership with inspiration and integrity, and together we shall shape the future of NNPC to a globally recognized brand. God willing, we will make it happen.
We will expand the frontiers of collaboration and alignment with our critical stakeholders, including but not limited to the legislature, security agencies, regulatory authorities, business partners, state governments, host communities, the media and all other relevant institutions. This is in order to maximize the benefits of the oil and gas industry to the nation.”