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Tag: NNPC

  • Petrol crisis to ease as govt, marketers settle

    Petrol crisis to ease as govt, marketers settle

    FUEL pumps may start flowing again, with senators facilitating an agreement between the Federal Government and oil marketers. Tankers are to immediately start lifting fuel in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar depots.

    The Senate yesterday mandated its joint committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream and downstream) to meet with stakeholders, including the Federal Government, to resolve the lingering fuel scarcity, which has crippled the economy.

    Banks have cut work hours and mobile firms are threatening to shut down. Transport fares are hitting the roof and airlines are cancelling flights.

    The resolutions were read by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe.

    Part of the resolutions is the immediate call-off of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PNGASSAN) strike.

    The resolution said that the strike was called off after the intervention of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Joseph Dawha.

    The resolution mandated the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to give an undertaking to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Depot Managers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMA) that the work of the committee being headed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) will be concluded.

    The committee is to verify the N200 billion MOMAN is claim that the government owes its members.

    The resolution said if the committee “concludes its verifications of the outstanding claims before the end of the life of this administration, it would be reflected in the handover notes to the new president.

    “If it is not concluded, then, the fact that such a committee was set up and is working, will be reflected in the handover notes and a copy of the letter conveying the existence of this committee will be sent to MOMAN and DAPPMA and, also, a copy will be sent to us in this committee.”

    It added “On the basis of that agreement, MOMAN will offer whatever cooperation that is needed to enable lifting of petroleum products to begin nationwide within six hours.

    “MOMAN has also agreed to give a similar undertaking to National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) to pay existing transport costs as has been determined by them.

    “MOMAN will give a written undertaking to NARTO and a copy will also be sent to this committee.

    “NARTO and its affiliates nationwide will commence lifting of petroleum products from available fuel depots within the next six hours.

    “DAPPMA is to instruct all their depots that have products to open those depots up to lifting of petroleum products within the next six hours.”

    Abe said that they also agreed with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) that “any depot that has product and fails to lift in the next six hours should have their licences revoked immediately.”

    He went on: “We have also agreed that NNPC should direct its staff nationwide to work 24 hours, including Saturdays and Sundays, for the next two weeks until normalcy returns to the sector.

    “We have also agreed to reach out to the Lagos State Government to facilitate this agreement and reach some kind of arrangement with tanker drivers to allow access to the relevant depots to facilitate lifting of products.”

    Abe had in his opening remarks said that the country is in a national emergency due to scarcity of petroleum products,

    He noted that impression was that “no government is in place but there is government in place as the Nigerian Constitution does not envisage any vacuum.

    He said: “As we speak, the airlines are shutting down, telecommunications are shutting down, banks are sending text messages that they are shutting down. We are in a situation of national emergency. I don’t want to talk about what the ordinary man in the streets is going through. I don’t want to talk about what private businesses are going through. We must resolve to solve the problem so that Nigeria can work again.”

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Senator Emmanuel Paulker, described the situation “as a national disaster”.

    He insisted that the meeting should work to find lasting solution in the interest of the country.

    Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, who briefed the committee extensively, said she was at a loss about what is happening.

    She said: “I’m not really sure about what is going on. I also want to understand what is going on. I deeply sympathise with Nigerians. It is deeply regrettable that Nigerians are put in this situation. There is deep anger. The government has done creditably.”

    The Minister wondered why diesel that is not regulated is also scarce and not available for Nigerians to buy.

    She said: “Diesel is not regulated, it is not subsidised. Why is diesel not available? Diesel is a product that should be available for everybody to buy. I want to understand why diesel is also not available.”

    The Minister said that she had a pattern of payment to marketers which the government had not deviated from.

    She added that the pattern this year is even better than what the government had in 2014.

    She insisted that payment to marketers is a rolling obligation and “there is no time that government has reduced the payment to zero”.

    The behavior of marketers, she said, “is inexplicable”.

    She said the last payment the government made to the marketers was N154 billion two weeks ago.

    The Minister said the marketers quickly came up with another claim of N200 billion.

    She said the claim was queried only for the government to find out that N159 billion out of the N200 billion was foreign exchange differential and not for actual product.

    “I told them it is better we get the whole thing verified where the CBN will participate and be in charge of the verification. We agreed to set up a committee but even before we conducted the verification they have started withdrawing and shutting down their facilities.

    “Before I came in, N1.3 trillion was supposedly owed the marketers but there was no shutdown. With N200 billion, the entire country is being shut down.

    “Government is a continuum; why are they saying that the debt must be brought to zero? Is government no longer a continuum?”

    Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said she did not want to leave government in four day time and be summoned to explain why she signed N159 billon cheque.

    “There is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the economy and bring it to a halt so that it will look as if government did not do any thing,” she said.

    Insisting that the whole thing is in bad faith, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said that Nigerians should ask marketers why diesel that is not regulated is not available.

    She said: “The government cares about Nigerians and the President is deeply concerned. The payment is a rolling payment and there has never been a time when everything is paid.”

    She said the marketers had been paid and there is no reason for them to withhold products except it is deliberate or sabotage.

    MOMAN spokesman Obafemi Olawore blamed it all on lack of funds to import products.

    Olawore noted that at the peak of the challenges facing the association, banks refused to extend credit line to them because members owe banks.

    He said they could not import products on their own.

    He said of N154 billion paid their members, they are owed transporters.

    Olawore also said that because they cannot import on their own, their members can only discharge the products they received from the NNPC.

    The DPR confirmed the availability of products in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar.

    It said Lagos alone has 425m liters of PMS.

    NNPC GMD, Dawha said there was sufficient product in the country.

    He said: “Even before the election, we made sure that there is sufficient product so that the election will not be disrupted.

    “Even now, we know that there is transition, we make sure there is sufficient product.

    “The marketers are not importing, there is also no lifting for obvious reasons. We also experienced small strike by NNPC workers which has also complicated the matter. We are hoping that they will call off the strike today.

     

  • Scarcity: NNPC raises hope

    Scarcity: NNPC raises hope

    The lingering fuel scarcity may continue till next month, considering marketers’ insistence on being paid the balance of over N200billion subsidy arrears owed them by the Federal Government.

    It was learnt that the situation is getting worse because the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) can only meet 50 per cent of the national demand and the oil marketers that supply the remaining 50 per cent have refused to import since last month.

    The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said the Corporation has 25 days stock but noted that the scarcity got worse because of the workers’ strike.

    Alegbe said: “As we speak, we have 25 days sufficiency. Although we (NNPC) import only 50 per cent of national demand, the scarcity is not supposed to be this severe. The situation was worsened by the strike embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). As a result of this strike, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTDs) are not lifting fuel.  Also, members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) have not imported a litre of fuel for a long time now.

    “We have been on negotiation with the striking workers since Friday and I hope the issue will be resolved before midnight today (Sunday) and the strike will be called off. We explained to them (striking workers) that this time is very wrong to embark on such strike because Nigerians suffer the impact and it is not good for a smooth transition expected in less than a week. We directed retail outlets to sell but because the tanker drivers were not lifting, they didn’t have product to sell. The supply situation will certainly improve substantially this week.”

  • NNPC workers join NPDC strike

    NNPC workers join NPDC strike

    As the strike by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) workers enters its fourth day, the entire labour unions of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG)–have joined their subsidiary NDPC unions to fight the transfer of operatorship of Shell divested oil blocks.

    The striking NNPC workers yesterday switched off power and threw the NNPC towers into darkness.

    A source at the NNPC said she couldn’t fathom the reason behind the strike.

    She said: “My candid response is that NPDC lacks the capacity to operate these assets. In fact, NPDC was operating only two small blocks and suddenly another eight blocks from Shell’s divestments were transferred to it by the NNPC. “We don’t have the financial and requisite personnel to manage these blocks and this is the reason for the transfer of the operatorship to the indigenous firms in joint venture partnership with them (NPDC).”

  • NNPC quiz competition: Akwa Ibom dwarfs others

    NNPC quiz competition: Akwa Ibom dwarfs others

    •Organisers frown at poor performance in Physics

    Pupils of Top Faith Secondary School, Akwa Ibom State, have emerged winner in the finals of the Southsouth zonal 2015 annual quiz competition organised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    However, the organisers were unimpressed by the performance of the participating schools in Physics, which was one of the core subjects in the sciences and mathematics contest.

    But the Akwa Ibom team dazzled, topping the competition held at the West African Peoples’ Institute, Calabar, with about 50 points ahead of other contestants from Rivers, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Cross River states.

    The competition featured science subjects including Chemistry, Biology, English language, Physics and Mathematics.

    Speaking at the event, NNPC General Manager, (Corporate Affairs) Mr Ohi Alegbe, charged participants to take their studies more seriously and develop interest in science-related subjects.

    He applauded the winners for their astute performance in the various rounds of the competition.

    “For you to emerge winner in this stage shows that you are actually a star in your school,” he said.

    Earlier, coordinator of the competition for the NNPC, Mr. Olatayo Sani, frowned at the poor performance, saying that most of the contestants answered the questions based on trial and error instead of with confidence on their choice answers.

    “I am not impressed with what is happening here. Without options your students cannot answer a question, which is very bad. That shows that they are all answering based on guess work and their poor performance in Physics is of concern too which needs to be addressed,” he said

    The Cross River State Commissioner for Education Prof. Offiong Offiong, expressed gratitude to organisers for grooming participants in the field of science as the basis for development of any nation.

    One of the winners from Top Faith Secondary School, Chidibem, attributed their success to hard work and efforts of the coordinating teachers whom he said, nurtured them to take part in the competition.

    He expressed optimism that the school would emerge victorious at the forthcoming national competition.

  • Apapa Traffic: Truck drivers get 48-hour ultimatum

    Stakeholders at the petroleum industry on Wednesday held a meeting with men of the security forces in a deliberate effort to end incessant gridlock on the Apapa, Oshodi-Mile 2 express road. The meeting at the NNS Beecroft, Navy yard at Apapa, was called to identify and proffer solutions to the causes of traffic problems in order to free the entire area. Addressing journalists after the meeting, Commander Ovenseri Uwadiae, who is the Chairman of the occasion and Commander of NNS Beecroft, lamented the economic loss brought upon the country by the perennial gridlock as well as threat to the general security to some extent. He further assured that with the commitment and support of the stakeholders to confront the traffic problem, the entire gridlock in the area can be completely solved. According to the Commander, some of the solutions proffered by stakeholders can be categorised into long and short term. “But for now, members of the stakeholders have resolved to focus on immediate solutions capable of bringing relief to motorists using Apapa Mile2 express way road. “Members of the stakeholders have agreed to set up a committee that would implement all the decisions taken at the meeting,” he noted. He also maintained that the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) would lead other members of the committee to inspect and ensure that shipping companies are operating loading bays in order to reduce number of trucks around the area and only trucks that have been marked for loading are within Apapa vicinity. Similarly, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA),Police, NPA and other stakeholders are therefore expected to fashion out alternative routes for trailers and tankers coming to Apapa – Mile 2 area for business in a way that they will only occupy a dedicated section of the service lane. This, Uwadiae maintained is necessary to bring orderliness on the road while reiterating his conviction that with the support of every stakeholder, motorists would soon begin to experience stress-free driving around the said axis. The commander said the management of NPA, must see to it that concessionaire operating at the port improves on human and facilities in order to reduce time being spent by trucks at the ports entrance, as spill over from the entrance often lead to traffic gridlock. The meeting urged the truck owners to cooperate with the management of the NPA in the area of registration to reduce cases of truck drivers packing within the area to solicit for business in the port, that such action is partially responsible for road blockade at Apapa. So too, the commander disclosed to media that he has been reliably informed that the repair of Apapa Mile 2 road will commence in earnest by Julius Berger. On his part, the General Manager, LASTMA, Eng. Babatunde Edu reaffirmed the commitment of the agency to pay attention to traffic along the axis and therefore solicited for the support and cooperation of other stakeholders for roads to be free of any gridlock. Other stakeholders at the meeting are leaders and representative of RTEAN, AMATO, NARTO, POLICE, NPA, FMW, UTQEN and Nigeria Navy

  • Fuel scarcity worsens Lagos traffic

    Fuel scarcity worsens Lagos traffic


  • The grand larceny at NNPC

    One notorious expression often bandied during the equally notorious era of President Olusegun Obasanjo was that “the rot is deep”. Meaning that the preceding and indeed, fleeing military junta had damaged the country almost beyond salvage that it would take so much time and huge resources to repair. Such was the banner hoisted by the Obasanjo administration that for eight years it accomplished very little and failed to repair anything of note.

    The rot was deep no doubt but Obasanjo did not tackle it with the requisite zestfulness either. If the rot was deep then, today, the entirety of Nigeria has become one heap of soggy mess and the petroleum industry is the epitome.

    The Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its prime agency, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, have turned out to be the most debased institution of government in the last six years. Ironically, this is the honey pot of the nation which accounts for more than 80 percent of her revenues.

    It must be noted upfront that there was no love lost between Hardball and our dainty oil minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke but beyond that, it must be said too that the worst thing that happened to the about-to-be-rested Goodluck Jonathan administration was charging Diezani with the running of Nigeria’s most valuable assets – petroleum resources.

    Through this period, she infested the sector with so much scandal that NNPC is in putrefaction. Every new month of her tenure came with a new scam; it was as if she was appointed to wreak havoc on the system. To compound it all, she never could get anything done all this while. Not old refineries were repaired nor a new one built. When she is not into a dubious oil swap deal, she is locked in a crude trade snafu; petrol subsidy-gate or kerosene subsidy rip-off.

    At a time when oil prices soared above $100 for about five years, the NNPC accounts were in a mess and its treasury leaked damagingly. But the mother of all scandals was the report of the missing $20 billion from the treasury of NNPC.

    This issue is turning to a case of grand larceny because when the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, first blew the whistle, government officials blatantly denied and even mocked that such a sum could not be removed from the system. As pressure mounted, government instituted an audit of the accounts of NNPC by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC).

    The so-called ‘forensic’ audit was carried out and its report was handed to government. It was as damaging as can be but official releases claimed NNPC had been vindicated. It was to pay only a ‘paltry’ $1.48 billion. Even that sum was never remitted to the treasury after one year.

    But the big bang now is that everything has turned out to be a lie. It has come out that PwC never did a proper audit as Diezani and her people in NNPC, CBN and NPDC would not avail PwC requisite information. PwC even prefaced the report with a disclaimer! Is this not grand larceny?

  • Our case against the PwC report on NNPC, by Nigerians

    Our case against the PwC report on NNPC, by Nigerians

    Beyond the mere release of the controversial PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) forensic audit report on the missing $20 billion oil cash, Nigerians want President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to take measures that will instill financial discipline in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), report Emeka Ugwuanyi, Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie and Chikodi Okereocha.

    WHEN President-elect Muhammadu Buhari spoke of plans by his administration to revisit the alleged missing $20 billion oil money, not a few Nigerians were excited.  Since the release of the forensic audit report carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Monday, there have been criticisms, comments and reactions from stakeholders. The consulting firm, which expressed its frustrations in the course of forensically auditing the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said in the report that $1.48 billion was not remitted into the Federation Account by the Corporation. Nigerians were dumb-founded by other shocking revelations  in report’s executive summary. Amidst the furore generated by the controversial report, PricewaterhouseCoopers has clarified that what it did was a mere review and not a forensic audit per se.

    Dr. Austin Nweze, an analyst and economist with the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, feels conducting a further probe into the NNPC will be a waste of time because the more one looks into the NNPC account, the more one is lost and confused. He advised the incoming Muhammadu Buhari-led government not to further probe the alleged missing $20 billion. He said should Buhari go into probing the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he will spend the entire first four years doing that because NNPC stinks. Nweze stated that doing so will be a serious distraction and disservice to the nation. Nweze urged Buhari to exert his energies on identifying the loopholes through which public funds are siphoned and plugging them.

    He said: “From the beginning, NNPC has been a conduit pipe through which government officials  divert public funds. It didn’t start today. It was like that under the military administration. NNPC is where every government goes to get money. Everything about the corporation stinks and the mess didn’t start today. The issue of corruption in NNPC is beyond PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report. The report could have covered a longer period, from at least 1999, because no such report had been done in the past. My advice to Buhari is to overlook the report and focus on identifying the loopholes. If he focuses on probing NNPC activities, his first four years will be dedicated to the rot in the Corporation.

    “Subsidy should be removed completely because it adds undue extra cost on fuel. Besides, the removal of subsidy will encourage competition among entrepreneurs in that sector. It will encourage local investors to build refineries in the country. Oil marketers can import and sell at a competitive price. There will be free market entry and exit. Nigeria refines its crude in Singapore and it gets the right quality and quantity. In other countries, the government gets less. The removal of subsidy will stop all these on the long run as enough crude will be refined locally, thus reducing production cost.

     “Also, if Buhari wants to probe the NNPC from the beginning, the culprits may plan against his government. It is a high-stake risk because of the caliber of people involved. My advice is that he should leave the sleeping dogs. But he should take measures to prevent institutional looting and stealing.”

    On the transferred assets to NNPC subsidiary, the National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nweze said the company should be compelled to provide all the required documents for a thorough audit.  He also pointed out that the Federal Government is disadvantaged in the joint venture arrangements because it accepts whatever the International Oil Companies (IOCs) declare.

    He said: “The government gets only about 20 per cent after the IOCs have deducted all their expenditures.

    “The government lacks the expertise and the technological know-how to determine the quantity of oil being produced.

    Matters arising

    from the report

    Also baring him mind on the proposed further probe, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Onyepkere said: “It is a welcome development that the president-elect will upon assumption of office probe the purported missing $20 billion oil cash. This will help to arrive at the veracity, truth, or otherwise of the allegation; expose and punish the culprit(s) as well as restore public confidence in the oil and gas industry.

    “The demand for this fresh probe is accentuated by PwC’s affirmation that it was unable to give an opinion or attestation to the figures and it did not claim it had done an examination in accordance with the generally accepted accounting standards. It therefore did not vouch for the veracity and accuracy of the figures.

    “It is unfortunate that the release of the PwC audit report did not come voluntarily but was forced by the president-elect’s threat to order a new probe. For an administration that signed the Freedom of Information Bill (FoIB) into law to be shielding such a document from the public speaks volumes of the administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

    “However, what the sector needs is more than a probe of the missing $20 billion and the CSJ is calling for a probe of the entire NNPC management since the return to civil rule in 1999. There are no corresponding developments and disbursements to revenue accrued to the country in the last 15 years.

    “Beyond the probe, CSJ calls for a fundamental restructuring that will separate the regulator from being an active player, introduce private sector efficiency and pave the way for investors to finance long-term transactions and projects in the oil and gas industry.

    “It is a positive process of liberalisation that will create opportunities for Nigerians and their partners to be in a win-win situation and this will remove the constraints on Nigeria’s development.

    “This will be a PIB (Petroleum Industry Bill) type of reform. It will addresse fundamental issues in the sector without creating new bottlenecks. It will yield more rents and taxes into the Federation Account, make gas available for power generation and increase the storage of processed gas for domestic use by industries and for export.

    “This is not going to be a complex exercise. The foundations of this quick reform have been laid since  2005. All it takes is to dialogue with the incoming National Assembly on the PIB and the modification thereof,  get same approved and assented to within two months after the inauguration of the new National Assembly.

    “It is a shame that the outgoing administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  produced the president, the majority and leadership in the National Assembly but could not muster the political will to pass the PIB and act in the interest of Nigerians. Posterity will remember the men and women who had the opportunity to improve the economy of Nigeria but chose to play politics of retrogression in place of emphasising development.”

      Ammendment of Fiscal

    Responsibility Act necessary

    Mr. Muda Yusuf, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), who hailed the release of PwC report, said the incoming administration has a lot of cleaning up to do in the corporation.

    Yusuf said: “It is important that we do away with this regime of fuel subsidy payments. The report has shown that the bulk of fraud emanated from fuel subsidy management. To prevent the economy from further haemorrhage, subsidy should be discontinued with and the savings used to provide critical infrastructure.”

    The LCCI chief stated that the report also showed the dangers in taking an economic decision that allows government agencies to earn revenue and disburse same without first remitting such accruals.

    He suggested that revenue-yielding agencies should be barred from  spending whatever they generate without approvals.

    Yusuf called for the amendment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act as a way of curbing extra budgetary disbursements by agencies.

    In his remarks, the Vice President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr. John Udeagbala, said the report has been over flogged. He said the alleged corruption in NNPC was already in the public domain, even as he commended the outgoing administration of  President Goodluck Jonathan for making the report public to douse the rumours and controversies  it has generated.

     Udeagbala, an oil and gas sector operator, urged the incoming administration to hire another firm to conduct a fresh audit into the operations of the NNPC.

    Release of audit report overdue

    Obiora Akabogu, a Lagos-based lawyer and public affairs analyst, said the release of the report was long overdue.

     “The exercise is timely. For a long time, NNPC’s account has been in the dark and the corporation has been a drain pipe to rip off Nigerians,” he told The Nation.

    He noted that “this monumental fraud would have been swept under the carpet” but for the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi, who blew the whistle.

    The lawyer, who accused the National Assembly of compromising on its oversight function by giving  NNPC a clean bill of health, urged the incoming administration to take advantage of the audit report by beaming its searchlight on NNPC.

    According to him, taking such a measure will serve as a deterrent.

    “I believe that economic rejuvenation of Nigeria should start with proper sanitisation of NNPC. It should no longer be business as usual,” Akabogu said. He described Buhari’s victory at the polls as a divine mandate to restore NNPC’s glory.

    Asked whether the release of the report has any political interpretation or undertone, coming after a recent alarm by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that there were clandestine moves by the outgoing administration to doctore the books, Akabogu said the APC did the normal thing by drawing public attention to perceived corrupt tendencies.

    “There is no timeline for combating corruption,” he said.

  • Download Full Audit Report of NNPC ‘$20bn Unremitted’ fund

    Download Full Audit Report of NNPC ‘$20bn Unremitted’ fund

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday ordered the immediate release of the full report of PriceWater Cooper’s investigations into the allegedly unremitted $20 billion to the Federation account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Download full report

  • Why FG should remove oil subsidy – NNPC

    Why FG should remove oil subsidy – NNPC

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday called on the Federal Government to scrap the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) otherwise known as petroleum subsidy because government should not guarantee the price of crude oil that it does not control.

    In his presentation during the 2015 Oloibiri Lecture and Energy Forum of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Abuja,  the corporation’s Group Executive Director, Corporate Strategy and Planning, Dr. Timothy Okon, described subsidy as the difference between the landing cost of petroleum products and the price for which it is sold.

    The theme of the lecture was: “Global Oil Price Dynamics: Impact and Strategic Solution for Nigeria.

    He explained that since government does not control the prices of crude oil, its fluctuation creates a fiscal instability in the country.

    “The manner in which the prices were result in government becoming the payer, fiscally guaranteeing the price which we do not control. That created fiscal instability,” he said.

    According to him, because of nature of oil prices, the government has now become the payer who guarantees the price that is not within its control.

    Okon also posited that the oil subsidy is a first line charge removed from the revenue before it is shared among the three tiers of government.