 |
|
Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
|
The Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has commenced the process of recovering over US$7bn
(₦1.4tn) in over-deducted tax benefits from joint venture
partners on major capital projects. It was learnt on Sunday that the corporation had
also engaged an international accounting firm to ascertain the exact amount due
to government on the Strategic Alliance Contracts entered by Nigerian Petroleum
Development Company, where up to US$2.46bn (₦484.6bn) of government money
would be recovered.
In
a report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari by its new management,
detailing the corporation’s successes so far, the Group Managing Director of
the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated that the firm had commenced its performance measurement
and benchmarking.
He
added that the corporation had started what it described as value for money
review of the NNPC and the JV companies covering the period of 2008 to 2013.
The Punch report continues:
The
Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba
Shehu, in a statement on Sunday, disclosed that the NNPC report indicated that
the new measures might lead to further cost recovery for the firm.
The
report, according to Shehu, also revealed that after an extensive investigation
of the various toxic crude oil for refined products swap contracts, a total sum
of $420m had so far been reconciled in favour of the NNPC and was now due for
recovery from the legacy OPA/SWAP contracts.
“Out
of the reconciled amount, the sum of US$277m has been recovered in lieu of
products and the recovery effort is still ongoing,” the statement added.
According
to the report, the NNPC GMD stated that he was committed to the continued
review of all existing contracts and addressing those that were not favourable
to the corporation.
It
noted that significant cost reductions were also expected to ensure that the
corporation remained profitable in the prevailing low crude oil price regime.
The
NNPC upstream operations are in joint partnerships with major oil companies.
These multi-national exploration and production companies are operating
predominantly in the onshore Niger Delta, coastal offshore areas and lately in
the deep waters.
As
with many other developing countries, the multinationals in Nigeria have been
operating under what is called a concession system, with the NNPC being the
concessionaire, while the companies are the operators.
The
NNPC also is responsible for the management of the exploration bidding rounds
for oil and gas. The multinational oil companies operate in partnership with
the corporation under Production Sharing Contracts.
The
statement from the Presidency on Sunday did not name the joint venture partners
from which the corporation plans to get the funds.
Some
of the international oil companies that are JV partners of the NNPC include
Shell, Agip, Mobil, Chevron and Texaco.
Kachikwu,
in the statement from the Presidency, said progress was being made towards
bringing back the nation’s refineries to full production, noting that the
management of the NNPC was working to actualise this before the end of 2015.
The
report noted that if the refineries were completed as scheduled, it would help
Nigeria save about $1bn worth of foreign exchange from fuel import substitution
annually.
It
said additional total savings of over US$500m would be made from the
petrochemical products of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company
annually.
The
report also disclosed that efforts at repositioning the NNPC had started
yielding result to the nation’s economy.
For
instance, it stated that gas supply to the power plants had improved
significantly from about 630 million to 861 million standard cubic feet per
day, which had resulted in a more steady power supply.
“Indeed,
the report revealed that gas supply for power and peak generation have in
recent times reached a historical high of 876 million standard cubic feet per
day and 4,782 megawatts, respectively,” the statement added.
No comments:
Post a Comment