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Tag: NNPC

  • I inherited N600bn debt owed to marketers of PMS – Kachikwu

    I inherited N600bn debt owed to marketers of PMS – Kachikwu

    Cheap petrol is coming, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu predicted yesterday.

    His forecast is based on what he described as the competition inherent in the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price modulation.

    He said the price of diesel, which is now 40 per cent down amid surplus supply, was enough evidence that petrol prices will also crash. Petrol is N145 per litre.

    Presenting his scorecard on his two years in office in a podcast released to reporters in Abuja, Kachikwu said that “once Nigerians throw their trading skill in it, once competition thrives, the prices will continue to tumble.

    “My guess is that you will see the prices tumble in the next four, five to six months. The market will be more stable and definitely, the prices will be lower than what we see today.”

    Besides, said the minister, in the last 10 years, this is the first time that the three refineries are working simultaneously, although at 50 per cent of their capacity.

    “We expect to put in investment to put them to 90 per cent capacity,” he said.

    According to Kachikwu, this is the first time the NNPC group has recorded savings, which could be used to address the refineries alongside the Joint Venture Partners.

    The minister noted that this is the first time the government has upgraded the depots. Of the 19, only three are grounded.

    He said this is the first time that a government is considering the replacement of the 35-year-old pipelines.

    “It has been one massive problem after the other for the sector to stabilise in term of product supply.

    To Kachikwu, “the time has come to take on the problem bullishly and that is what we are trying to do”. “So, we believe the ire will be money for infrastructural development in the downstream sector”, he said, adding:

    “We believe that a lot of the companies will jump up now and be able to sell at the right prices and not the pump down by the problem of price control and will be able to grow their businesses. We believe that most of them, efficient ones will drive prices southward rather than northward.

    “And we believe that almost 200,000 jobs will be created in this sector and over 400,000 jobs will be saved, which would have been lost if we had continued on the path we were in.”

    On the assumption of office two years ago, Kachikwu said, he inherited a debt of N600billion owed to marketers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which the Federal Government settled.

    His words: “Now, why do we have to do this? The first one is that when we came into position in August, last two years, about  N600billion was owed to marketers. And all of them basically ceased importing products.

    He spoke of how he lifted Nigerians from the pains of the scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit and its concomitants queues.

    He noted that the product was scarce because its selling price was higher than its cost price, hence the removal of the Petrol Support Fund (PSF), also known as petrol subsidy.

    Kachikwu said: “ I know that a lot of you watched as we moved price from N86.50; you to N145 were screaming where were we heading ?”

    According to him, there would have been no better time to accomplish the feat other than in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is trusted enough to utilise the benefits from PMS for the betterment of the country.

    This, according to him, upon the removal of the subsidy, the marketers were reluctant to import the product owing to their lack of access to forex.

    He said the government had no money from crude oil following the reduction in production as the militants were on rampage .

    The minister said: “The reality was that we did have the barrel to throw at it; we didn’t have the refineries . The Federal Government was bleeding. The production today is about 1.4  because the militants attack had taken away about 800,000 barrels per day. Once you do not have the barrel, foreign exchange does not come in.

    “So foreign exchange was depleting and the question was what did we do with the foreign exchange we had.

    “And the President made the right choice to leave what we have intact so that we do not run into a state of bankruptcy. The only option we had was to create a liberalised environment so that people can bring in their products, source their money from secondary markets, charge the right price, which they would not do unless the price was high. Fellow Nigerians, we were left with no option than what we did.”

    According to Kachikwu, the refineries were not working but as soon as the government was able to revamp, the 445 barrels per day was sent to the refineries

    He noted that the situation culminated in almost making the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) the sole importer of PMS instead of its statutory provision of 55 per cent.

  • Major shake-up in NNPC

    Major shake-up in NNPC

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday announced a major management shake-up that culminates in the appointments and redeployment across the value chain.

    The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, told NNPC officials shortly before the announcement was made public that the new appointments would not only help to position the Corporation for the challenges ahead but would help fill the gaps created due to statutory retirements. A total of 55 top management officers were affected in the exercise.

    According to a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu,  under the new arrangement, Roland Ewubare, formerly MD of the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), moves to the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, (NAPIMS) as the new Group General Manager while Diepriye Tariah, former GGM and Senior Technical Assistant to the NNPC GMD takes over from Ewubare as MD of IDSL.

    The statement reads in part: “Malami Shehu, Executive Director, Operations, of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), was appointed Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) while Adewale Ladenegan, former MD of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) was moved to KRPC to assume duty as MD.

    “In the same vein, Muhammed Abah, until recently, the Executive Director Operations of WRPC succeeds Ladenegan as MD of Warri Refinery.

    “With the retirement of  Farouk Ahmed as the MD of the Nigerian Products Marketing Company, (NPMC), Umar

    Ajiya, former GGM in charge of Corporate Planning and Strategy, (CP&S) now assumes duty as MD of NPMC.

    “Bala Wunti, former, General Manager, Downstream, GMD’s Office, takes charge as GGM CP&S.

    Other changes include: Usman Yusuf who takes over as GGM/STA to the GMD, Adeyemi Adetunji confirmed as MD, NNPC Retail, alongside Dr. Bola Afolabi, who now functions as GGM in charge of Research and Development Division of the Corporation.

    “Also on the list is Mrs. Ahmadu-Katagum appointed GGM (Shipping) in the Downstream Autonomous Business Unit and Kallamu Abdullahi takes over as the GGM in charge of the Renewable Energy Division in the Downstream ABU.

    Dr. Shaibu Musa was promoted MD of the NNPC Medical Services Limited, while Ibrahim Birma is the new GGM in charge of the Corporation’s Audit Division now renamed Governance, Risk and Compliance Division.”

  • NNPC increases gas supply to power plants by 123%

    NNPC increases gas supply to power plants by 123%

    • Signs agreement with Total on gas

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased daily average natural gas supply to the nation’s gas power plants by 123 per cent to 730 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d), a report said.

    Also the corporation yesterday signed a Joint Venture agreement with the Greenville Oil and Gas Co. Limited for the production and distribution of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Rumuji, Rivers state without pipelines to other parts of Nigeria, especially in the north.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe  Kachikwu, who made this known yesterday,  the project which stretches for about 1,000Km is to have the capacity of create numerous jobs for truck drivers, attendants and others, adding that the negotiation of the agreement had been on in the past three years.

    According to the report, gas supply to power plants increased slightly by 0.13 per cent from 729mmscf/d in May 2017 to 730mmscf/d in June 2017.

    The report also indicated that nationwide petroleum products supply continued to record remarkable stability following the performance of Nigeria’s three refineries which produced between five and six million liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, per day in June 2017.

    The refineries also produced between five and six million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, per day in the period under review.

    “The Corporation has maintained seamless nationwide supply and distribution of petroleum products which guarantees stable products and queue-free filling stations across the nation,” the report stated.

    He said the agreement which would in the first instance produce 250 Standard Cubic Feet per can increase to 500SCUF per day in the long run.

    According to him, the “agreement will help us unlock undeliverable opportunities in terms of supply to power and supply entities. It will help some of the oil companies to meet up with their Direct Supply Obligations that they had earlier signed that they have been unable to execute.”

    He added that “we need to find our ways that in the absence of sufficient trucking to put pipelines in place very rapidly we needed to look for new technology . And we had been having this conversation over the last two three years. We started first by looking at the structure in which the gas and power of NNPC was working and we set up two companies -the NGLC which is the marketing company itself and of course the NGPTC, which is supposed to deal with the infrastructural provision.”

    The minister predicated the success that led to the signing of the agreement on the calmness in the Niger Delta which will enable the company access the gas.

    He said that the pioneer gas trucked project is coming as a challenge and opportunity to other investors that have been looking for a way to access and distribute gas in the absence of pipelines.

     

    Continuing, he said that “this doesn’t take away the need for pipelines. We are going to continue providing pipelines. But what is there is that we no longer can wait. We can actually move in a very robust manner and to get gas up in the north.”

    Kachikwu noted that what is still needed to be done is ensure that the payments issues are dealt with and the financing is being smooth for both the producer of the gas and the individuals who take responsibility to distribute it are both adequately paid.

    The minister stressed that “I think we will be working with you as federal government agencies once we begin to deploy to places like NNPC, the Central Bank, the Senate to ensure that payment under the new system are made on time. So that there is a good financing and funding for you to do the future expansion project.

    Kachikwu said that : “The first one is 220 per day but it has the capacity to go up to 5,000 per day . So it is quite massive. So what you find is that over the next three to four years if the right finances are put in place and adequate patronage and market is created this could actual metamorphose into the avenue for deploying gas in the country.”

    He urged other investors to emulate the model especially at the centre where people can afford to pay the right kind of pricing for the supply of power.

    The report also showed that the performance of the Port Harcourt Refinery continued to improve with a boost to the midstream value chain as it inched towards sustained commercial operations.

    The pump price of diesel had crashed by 42 per cent nationwide following strategic intervention by the Corporation in May 2017.

    On pipeline vandalism, the report indicated that the Corporation recorded about 86 cases of pipeline breaks across the country in the period under review.

    According to the report, out of these 86 cases, 77 were due to pipeline vandalism, which represents almost 40 per cent increase relative to cases recorded in the previous month (May 2017).

    The report added that while the Port Harcourt-Aba line recorded the highest pipeline breaches of 55 points (66 per cent), there was also an unusual upsurge in the activities of vandal along Kaduna-Zaria line which witnessed 13 vandalised points during the period.

    There was also a slight decrease in national gas production compared to previous month which stood at 227.15BCF or an average of 7,571.50 mmscfd, the report noted.

    This, the Corporation explained, was despite sustaining the success recorded by its enhanced crude oil evacuation and oil lifting in June, 2017 following re-opening of Forcados Oil Terminal (FOT) on 31st March, 2017.

    The NNPC further called on Nigerians to continue to support the Corporation in the area of security with a view to ensuring zero vandalism of the nation’s oil and gas infrastructures.

    The June 2017 report is the 23rd edition in the series which seeks to sustain effective communication with the Corporation’s stakeholders in line with its commitment to becoming more accountable, responsive and transparent organisation.

     

  • Total, NNPC sign agreement to deliver without pipelines 

    Total, NNPC sign agreement to deliver without pipelines 

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday signed a Joint Venture agreement with the Greenville Oil and Gas Co. Limited for the production and distribution of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Rumuji, Rivers state without pipelines to other parts of Nigeria, especially in the north.
    It is the pioneer Nigerian LNG that will distribute gas using special trucks for domestic consumption, by creating a virtual gas pipeline to supply natural gas to those regions not served or under served by physical pipelines.
    The project which stretches for about 1,000Km is said to have the capacity of creating numerous jobs for truck drivers, attendants and others.
    Speaking at the ceremony in Abuja, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, noted that the negotiation of the agreement had been on in the past three years.
    He said the agreement which would in the first instance produce 250 Standard Cubic Feet per can increase to 500SCUF per day in the long run.
    According to him, the “agreement will help us unlock undeliverable opportunities in terms of supply to power and supply entities. It will help some of the oil companies to meet up with their Direct Supply Obligations that they had earlier signed that they have been unable to execute.”
    He added that “we need to find our ways that in the absence of sufficient trucking to put pipelines in place very rapidly we needed to look for new technology.  And we had been having this conversation over the last two three years. We started first by looking at the structure in which the gas and power of NNPC was working and we set up two companies -the NGLC which is the marketing company itself and of course the NGPTC, which is supposed to deal with the infrastructural provision.”
    The minister predicated the success that led to the signing of the agreement on the calmness in the Niger Delta which will enable the company access the gas.
    He said that the pioneer gas trucked project is coming as a challenge and opportunity to other investors that have been looking for a way to access and distribute gas in the absence of pipelines.
    Continuing, he said that “this doesn’t take away the need for pipelines. We are going to continue providing pipelines. But what is there is that we no longer can wait. We can actually move in a very robust manner and to get gas up in the north.”
    Kachikwu noted that what is still needed to be done is ensure that the payments issues are dealt with and the financing is being smooth for both the producer of the gas and the individuals who take responsibility to distribute it are both adequately paid.
    The minister stressed that “I think we will be working with you as federal government agencies once we begin to deploy to places like NNPC, the Central Bank, the Senate to ensure that payment under the new system is made on time. So that there is a good financing and funding for you to do the future expansion project.
    Kachikwu said that: “The first one is 220 per day but it has the capacity to go up to 5,000 per day. So it is quite massive. So what you find is that over the next three to four years if the right finances are put in place and adequate patronage and market are created this could actual metamorphose into the avenue for deploying gas in the country.”
    He urged other investors to emulate the model especially at the centre where people can afford to pay the right kind of pricing for the supply of power.
  • Diezani: $40million was conveyed in cash to a bank chief

    Diezani: $40million was conveyed in cash to a bank chief

    Court orders final forfeiture of cash

    Protesters seek ex-minister’s extradition

    The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the final forfeiture of N7.6billion allegedly stolen and hidden by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

    Justice Abdulazeez Anka granted an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking the money’s final forfeiture to the Federal Government.

    He held: “I’ve read the motion on notice seeking the final forfeiture of the sum of N7,646,700,000 reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.

    “I have also gone through the affidavit in support of the application.

    “In the circumstances, I am of the view that the application has merit and is hereby granted as prayed. Parties have a right of appeal.”

    Moving the application, EFCC’s lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo said the money was part of “huge sums” allegedly diverted by Mrs Alison-Madueke from various subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    According to him, it was “fraudulently converted from NNPC by Mrs Alison-Madueke”.

    He said the commission published an advertorial after the court ordered the money’s temporary forfeiture, but no one came forward to claim its ownership.

    In an affidavit to support the application, an investigating officer, Usman Zakari, said he was part of a team of operatives who investigated an intelligence report that huge sums were laundered.

    He said it was looted through former Managing Director, Crude Oil Marketing Department, Gbenga Olu Komolafe; former Managing Director, Petroleum Products Management Company (PPMC) Prince Haruna Momoh; Group Managing Director, Nigerian Products Marketing Company (NPMC) Umar Farouk Ahmed, Stanley Lawson, Babajide Sonoiki and some bank chiefs on behalf of Mrs Alison-Madueke.

    The deponent said Mrs Alison-Madueke called a bank chief to her office for a meeting where she informed him that some officials of her ministry would be bringing funds to his bank.

    She allegedly directed that the “funds must neither be credited into any known account nor captured in any transactional platforms of the bank”.

    The investigator added: “In carrying out this alleged scheme of fraud, the sum of $153,310,000 was moved from NNPC through B.O.N Otti and Stanley Lawson, both former Group Executive Directors, Finance and Account of the NNPC” to the bank.

    He said using the same fraudulent scheme, another $45million was also conveyed to the bank.

    He said the money was conveyed in cash from Abuja to the bank’s headquarters in Lagos; $113,310,000 was taken out of it and moved to another bank in a bid to conceal its illicit source.

    The investigator said the remaining $40million was conveyed in cash to a bank chief, Dauda Lawal.

    Zakari said $108,310,000 was taken from the $113,310,000 and was disguised and invested in an off balance sheet investment using an asset management company owned by the bank as a special purpose vehicle.

    He said the remaining $5million was conveyed in cash to another bank’s managing director “for safe keeping”.

    The sum in the asset management company was allegedly converted to N23,446,300,000, which EFCC said it recovered in drafts from the bank.

    It also recovered the $5million held by the bank MD.

    The operative said the $40million conveyed in cash to Lawal was subsequently converted to N9,080,000,000 and retained by him.

    Zakari said the N23,446,300,000, $5million and N9,080,000,000 were forfeited to the Federal Government on February 16, following an order by Justice Muslim Hassan of the same court.

    According to him, the $45million was converted to naira by the bank in a bid to conceal and disguise its illicit origin.

    He said EFCC received N7,646,700,000 in draft from the bank.

    He recalled that the court on August 9 granted an interim order of forfeiture of the money and directed EFCC to publish the order in national newspapers to enable any person interested in it to appear in court and show cause why it should not be forfeited permanently to the Federal Government.

    “The applicant has complied with the order of this court by publishing the said order on the 16th of August. It is in the interest of justice to grant this application,” Zakari said.

    Justice Anka “granted the application as prayed”.

    The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has frozen London properties valued at £10 million allegedly bought for the former minister.

    The two properties located at Regents Park in London, along with one in Buckinghamshire, have now been frozen based on the request of Nigerian authorities.

    According to online news medium, Premium Times, a London court gave the freeze order in September 2016 but details of the rulings have only recently become public.

    But the agency was too late in preventing a further two properties worth £8 million from being sold.

    In July, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) had revealed four properties it alleged were bought for the former petroleum minister by individuals and firms seeking her influence in obtaining lucrative oil assets and crude oil lifting contracts.

    Some of the oil assets were assigned to people believed to be her cronies through Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs).

    The DoJ’s affidavit stated that businessmen, Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko were involved in the purchase of two of the properties allegedly bought for Alison-Madueke.

    The UK order obtained by Africa Confidential, a newsletter specialising in politics and business in Africa, has revealed that three of the properties have been frozen under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

  • NNPC increases gas to power by 123% 

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased daily average natural gas supply to the nation’s gas power plants by 123 per cent to 730 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d).

    The Corporation, in its June 2017 Monthly Financial and Operations Report released on Tuesday, said the gas supply was for June 2017 as against 327mmscf/d in the corresponding period in 2016.

    According to the report, gas supply to power plants increased slightly by 0.13 per cent from 729mmscf/d in May 2017 to 730mmscf/d in June 2017.

    This was contained in the statement that the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu issued in Abuja.

    The report also indicated that nationwide petroleum products supply continued to record remarkable stability following the performance of Nigeria’s three refineries which produced between five and six million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, per day in June 2017.  

    The refineries also produced between five and six million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, per day in the period under review.

    “The Corporation has maintained seamless nationwide supply and distribution of petroleum products which guarantees stable products and queue-free filling stations across the nation,” the report stated.

    The report also showed that the performance of the Port Harcourt Refinery continued to improve with a boost to the midstream value chain as it inched towards sustained commercial operations.
     
    It would be recalled that the pump price of diesel crashed by 42% nationwide following strategic intervention by the Corporation in May 2017.
     
    On pipeline vandalism, the report indicated that the Corporation recorded about eighty-six (86) cases of pipeline breaks across the country in the period under review. 
     
    According to the report, out of these 86 cases, 77 were due to pipeline vandalism, which represents almost 40% increase relative to cases recorded in the previous month (May 2017). 
     
    The report added that while the Port Harcourt-Aba line recorded the highest pipeline breaches of 55 points (66%), there was also an unusual upsurge in the activities of vandal along Kaduna-Zaria line which witnessed 13 vandalized points during the period.
     
    There was also a slight decrease in national gas production compared to previous month, which stood at 227.15BCF or an average of 7,571.50 mmscfd, the report noted.
     
    This, the Corporation explained, was despite sustaining the success recorded by its enhanced crude oil evacuation and oil lifting in June 2017 following re-opening of Forcados Oil Terminal (FOT) on March 31st, 2017. 

    The NNPC further called on Nigerians to continue to support the Corporation in the area of security with a view to ensuring zero vandalism of the nation’s oil and gas infrastructures.

    The June 2017 report is the 23rd edition in the series, which seeks to sustain effective communication with the Corporation’s stakeholders in line with its commitment to becoming more accountable, responsive and transparent organisation.

  • How conmen dupe unsuspecting crude oil buyers, by NNPC

    How conmen dupe unsuspecting crude oil buyers, by NNPC

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has provided insight into the modus operandi of conmen, who dupe unsuspecting would-be crude oil buyers.

    This is coming a few days after raising concerns on the fraudulent activities of the scammers.

    NNPC’s Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) Mr. Mele Kyari said the corporation “doesn’t sell crude oil from hotel rooms as done by scammers”.

    Kyari said they usually lured their unsuspecting victims with higher discount offers on cargoes, offers of non-OPEC crude specification, crude allocation, presentation of crude oil sale letters as well as conducting business from hotels.

    The corporation’s Group Managing Director, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in a statement yesterday, quoted Kyari as saying that “some of them (scammers) even go to the extent of luring their victims to hotels to transact these fraudulent crude oil contracts”.

    “The entire public should know that NNPC doesn’t do business of crude oil marketing from hotel rooms,” the statement said.

    He reiterated that there was only one way of buying crude oil from the NNPC, which is through advertisement for the selection of customers who were screened for compliance with the corporation’s expectations and standards.

    “There are very high standards we have set and if you don’t meet them, you cannot be our customer. And once you become our customer, we sign a single annual contract with you,” Kyari added.

    He observed that the crude contracts were typically 30,000 to 32,000 bpd, which accumulated into a standard cargo size of 950,000bpd monthly and not two to three million bpd contracts as being peddled by the scammers.

    Kyari observed that for the crude oil sale processes to be completed, the customer had to show that he had the capability to sell the cargo to the market and that the corporation could get its money back.

    According to him, today, the entire process of crude oil marketing had become seamless and real-time with electronic platforms such as Platts and Argus acting as reporting agencies for global crude trading programmes.

    “The beauty of selling crude oil is that the moment we sell the crude oil cargo to you, the entire world know that cargo X is with Mr. Y. So, you see, you don’t have to scavenge for who buys your crude,” he said.

    He informed would-be buyers not to be gullible as the scammers always cashed in on would-be buyers gullibility to swindle them, adding that those who fall for the scammers were  either not in the business or were themselves fraudulent.

  • NNPC alerts on international crude oil fraudsters

    NNPC alerts on international crude oil fraudsters

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday raised the red flag on the activities of con men who specialise in circulating phantom letters of crude oil allocation with the intent of defrauding unsuspecting would-be buyers or members of the public.

    Speaking at the presentation of commendation letters to 12 workers of the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of the Corporation in Abuja, its Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said the activities of the international fraudsters created an unnecessary distraction for staff of the COMD who were compelled to deal with huge turnover of scam mails on a regular basis.

    The NNPC in a statement, explained that Baru  urged members of the public to be wary of such dubious emails purporting to emanate from the Corporation with mouth-watering crude oil allocation offers.

    Providing an insight into the activities of the nefarious group, the Group General Manager, COMD, Mallam Mele Kyari, said the scammers function by sending fake crude oil allocation letters using names of senior NNPC officials as decoy and requesting the gullible individuals to pay certain cash deposits as commission on volume of crude received.

    “The gullible individuals end up paying huge sums of dollars into these accounts as commission but the reality is that nobody allocates crude oil on a piece of paper the way the scammers canvass in their dubious letters. Everything about crude sale is electronic and real time. If you have your cargo the whole world knows,” Kyari said.

  • Vandals doing harm to economy, NNPC cries out

    Vandals doing harm to economy, NNPC cries out

    The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has appealed to oil pipeline hackers to desist from such nefarious act which, according to him, is not only harmful to the environment, but equally hazardous to the pipeline vandals and the economy.

    Speaking while receiving a delegation of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) at the NNPC Towers, Abuja for a business meeting, Baru noted that the ugly incidents of petroleum pipeline pulverization presented a loss-loss scenario for the vandals, environment and economy.

    The GMD restated the commitment of the corporation to the best industry standards in Health Safety and the Environment (HSE), noting that the corporation does not embark on any project without a duly certified Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.

    A statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, yesterday quoted him as saying that:“All our projects also go through commissioning and decommissioning, and we do it in accordance with prevailing world standards and our environmental practices are in line with the latest International Standard Organization (ISO) specifications. ’’

    The GMD noted that HSE was given a major consideration before the corporation executed the recent spate of multi-billionaire upstream investment agreements with some of its Joint Venture (JV) partners.

    ‘’Be rest assured that if there is just one company that would be environmentally compliant in the industry, it is definitely going to be the NNPC,’’ Baru told the NES delegation.

    In her presentation, Mrs. Dorothy Bassey, National Vice President of the society commended the NNPC for its recent successes in the sector, especially the signing of alternative funding agreements with JV partners and the re-invigoration of the NNPC Anti-Corruption unit.

    Mrs. Bassey said as the foremost environmental society in the country, the NES was willing to forge a symbiotic relation with the corporation to address all the concerns that come with the day-day operations in the NNPC in particular and the oil and gas industry in general.

    Earlier in the day, the NNPC GMD received a delegation of the Nigerian National Merit Award led by the Chairman, Prof. Shekarau Aku. Dr. Baru pledged the readiness of the corporation to support and identify with the ideals of the NNMA which extols the merit and value addition to the society.

  • Vandals hurting the economy – NNPC

    Vandals hurting the economy – NNPC

    The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has appealed to oil pipeline vandals to desist from such nefarious activity, saying the conduct is not only harmful to the environment but equally hazardous to the economy.

    Speaking while receiving a delegation of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) who was at the NNPC Towers Abuja for a business meeting, Baru said petroleum pipeline pulverization presented a loss-loss scenario for the vandal, the environment and the economy.

    He restated the NNPC commitment to best industry standards in Health Safety and the Environment, (HSE), noting that the Corporation does not embark on any project without a duly certified Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.

    A statement issued on Friday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu quoted the GMD as saying:“All our projects also go through commissioning and decommissioning and we do it in accordance with prevailing world standards and our environmental practices are in line with the latest International Standard Organization (ISO) specification. ’’

    Baru noted that HSE was given a major consideration before the Corporation executed the multi-billionaire naira upstream investment agreements with some of its Joint Venture (JV) partners.

    ‘’Be rest assured that if there is just one company that would be environmentally compliant in the industry, it is definitely going to be NNPC,’’ he added.

    The National Vice President of the NES, Mrs. Dorothy Bassey, commended the NNPC for success in the sector, especially the signing of alternative funding agreements with the JV partners and the re-invigoration of the NNPC anti-corruption unit.