A Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was launched on Tuesday in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari, who did the official unveiling, said the successor of the old Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was now a fully limited liability company. This means that it is “free from institutional regulations.”
He said, “The provisions of PIA (Petroleum Industry Act) 2021 have given the Nigerian petroleum industry a new impetus, (what) with improved fiscal framework, transparent governance, enhanced regulation and the creation of a commercially-driven and independent national oil company that will operate without relying on government funding and free from institutional regulations such as the Treasury Single Account, Public Procurement and Fiscal Responsibility Acts. It will, of course, conduct itself under the best international business practice in transparency, governance and commercial viability.” The President said the government was transforming the petroleum industry to strengthen its capacity and market relevance for the present and future global energy priorities. “NNPC Limited will operate as a commercial, independent and viable NOC, at par with its peers around the world, to sustainably deliver value to its over 200 million shareholders and the global energy community, while adhering to its fundamental corporate values of integrity, excellence and sustainability,” he explained.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the unveiling of the new oil company, the Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, said that the firm was now a private outfit. Responding to a question on what would happen to NNPC’s monthly remittances to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) which shares federally collected revenues between the Federal, state and local governments, Kyari replied, “We are now a private company. Would MTN go to FAAC?” he asked. However, he assured “We will pay our taxes, royalties and deliver dividends to our shareholders.”
The coming of a new baby is usually a festive occasion. But the atmospherics of the launch of NNPC Ltd are uncharacteristically subdued but understandably so. The fear of many Nigerians is that the ghost of the old national oil monopoly may return to hunt the new.
One, the wholesale importation of the old team, led by Mele Kyari, is a bad omen. We recall that President Buhari , while signing the draft Petroleum Industry Act in April, announced the coming of a firm to replace NNPC. He said thereafter, it would no longer be business as usual in the oil and gas industry that was run around by an inept and corrupt management.
Soon after, the old NNPC, managed by Kyari, allowed the importation of contaminated petrol worth billions of naira. The investigation that was ordered has gone silent. Now it is this same Kyari that is heading the new NOC. A case of new wine in an old wineskin. What will be the result?
