The Integrity Youth Alliance has said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation consideration of equity participation in a number of private refineries in the country including Dangote Refinery is the best decision from the Corporation.
In a press release on Wednesday, 2nd June, 2021 signed by the National Secretary of the Alliance, Danjuma Lamido, he said that the PDP allegations that the Buhari’s government want to loot N1.7tn is nothing but irresponsible, reprehensible and baseless.
“A typical of equity shares that have earned the country billions of Naira is that of the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), a major player in the global LNG business.
“NLNG was incorporated as a Limited Liability company on May 17, 1989, to harness Nigeria's vast natural gas resources and produce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) for export.
“NLNG’s shareholding and governance structure is the first of its kind in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
“The company is an Incorporated Joint Venture owned in the following proportions: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International N.A. N.V. S.àr.l (10.4%).
“As we all know, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has generated $114 billion in revenues over the years with $9 billion in taxes. The company has a proven track record of resilient performance (Operational Excellence, HSE, etc.) and unswerving profitability, the statement said.
The Alliance reiterated that NNPC under Mallam Kyari is been managed through absolute transparency and accountability as the GMD has created a conducive environment for teamwork, proficient communication and partnership within and outside the NNPC system.
“Mallam Kyari has achieved a milestone with the release in June 2020, of the 2018 Audited Financial Statement of the NNPC, which has never happened since the establishment of the Corporation 44 years ago.
“The PDP should be aware that the NNPC is also collaborating with African Refinery in Port Harcourt, a co-location facility, the CNCEC Chinese group, which is interested in building two refineries in Nigeria, the Waltersmith modular plant and Azikel refineries on condensate production, so we wonder why fuming over Dangote Equity Shares initiative?
“The PDP demanding that the federal government immediately halts this nebulous process is groundless. As far as President Buhari remains the Minister of Petroleum and Mallam Mele Kyari remains the GMD of NNPC, the equity transaction will be transparent in terms of all conditions attached to the equity acquisition, the statement said.
The Alliance reiterated that the NNPC through its spokesperson, Dr. Kennie Obateru, has explained that NNPC has a dual role of providing stewardship for the nation’s hydrocarbon resources and adding value to the resources for the benefit of all Nigerians and other stakeholders. These roles enable it to achieve the twin objectives of providing energy security for the country and stimulating the nation’s economic development and growth.
“The NNPC spokesman has reiterated that the oil refining sector is one of such segments where NNPC is revisiting its strategy in order to strengthen domestic refining capacity and guarantee National Energy Security. The new vision is to grow domestic refining capacity, improve petroleum products supply from our local refineries and become a net exporter of petroleum products.
He said that NNPC’s strategic objective to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth with limited resources requires it to consider strategic partnerships with competent investors in sectors of the oil and gas value chain especially where it currently operates on a sole risk basis.
“We call on Nigerians to ignore the baseless allegations of the PDP, whose Government since 1999 couldn’t provide the financial audit of the NNPC as we are witnessing under the Buhari’s/Kyari’s administration of the Corporation, statement concluded.
