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| Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu |
•To end fuel import after 18 months
The Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been unbundled into four units in a
major restructuring of the 39-year-old oil giant. Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu yesterday announced the new structure at a
briefing in Abuja.
The
Nation report continues:
The
minister, who is also the Group Managing Director of the organization, said
President Muhammadu Buhari approved the restructuring.
He
said: “The new NNPC comprises a lean headquarters and four autonomous business
units.”
He
told reporters that the restructuring will not lead to job losses.
The
four units are: Upstream Company, Downstream Company, Refinery Company
and Gas/ Power Company.
According
to him, the Upstream Company will now comprise of NPDC and the IDSL. The
Downstream Company consists of Retail, NPMC and NPSC, the Refinery Company
consists of WRPC, KRPC and PHRC while the Gas and Power is now made up of
NGPTC, NGMC and Gas and Power Investment.
Kachikwu
said the Federal Government has approved the appointment of Chief Executives
for the companies: They are: Bello Rabiu as CEO of the Upstream Company;
Henry Iken Obih for Downstream; Anibor Kragha for Refineries and Saidu Mohammed
for Gas and Power.
He
denied announcing the unbundling of the corporation into 30 companies, saying
the GMD is still the Chief Executive of NNPC.
He
said what was ignored in his statement about the new structure of the NNPC is
that there will be “subsets. Subset is the unbundling. It is not a direct
unbundling of NNPC into 30. It means that the subsets of NNPC are being
unbundled into smaller numbers of companies. It is totally a different thing
and the press got it wrong, please.”
The
minister attributed the cause of fuel scarcity to the independent marketers
that have refused to import petroleum products that now resulted in NNPC
embarking on 100 per importation and supply instead of 50 per cent.
He
expressed hope that within one year, the NNPC would overcome fuel constraints
and exit importation of products.
The
minister said the Port Harcourt Refinery is back on stream, working at “minimal
terms.”
He
said the corporation has now embarked on supplying one cargo of products daily.
Three refineries, he said, are configured now to produce 50% of PMS and 50% of
other products.
“The
hope is that at the end of the month, the three refineries would have got crude
and begin to work. Hopefully, that will soften the pressure,” he added.
The
minister explained that even if the refineries are producing at 100 per cent
installed capacity there will still be supply gap, stressing that this
situation can only be ameliorated when there is completion of Greenfield
refineries and modular ones that could be coupled for production.
He
said the refineries are operational, they will increase products to a level
that Nigeria will commence building a reserve of refined products.
According
to him, with the efforts being made to build modular and greenfield refineries
Nigeria is targeting fuel export by 2020 when Dangote Refinery becomes
operational.
The
minister said “when the refineries begin to work, we will see how we can save
up and continue our importation process and save up strategic reserves so that
in the month of difficulties you can reach out to those before you get your
next set of import.
“We
are working feverishly trying to see with the Joint Venture Partners how we can
come with refineries. We have advertised recently for the collocated
refineries.”
On
whether government has removed fuel subsidy, he said there is no removal of
subsidy but price modulation.
He
noted that the government is now saving from the price modulation and it could
use the savings to stabilize the market when it is necessary.
According
to him, the government will further review the prices of petrol by April, which
may lower the cost of fuel.
He
said he will always support a reduction of supply by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to increase the
price of crude.
The minister said prior to
the blast of the Forcados pipeline, Nigeria was producing 2.3million barrels
per day.
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