FG SCRAPS NNPC

Piqued by deluge of corruption, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua took a bold step scrapping the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC while setting up a five replacement companies.

Pointblanknews.com learnt that President Yar’Adua was particularly irked by the latest story on Pointblanknews.com titled: Nigeria Looses $60 Billion To NNPC Smuggling Ring. The exclusive report brought to fore the smuggling of Nigeria’s crude from the Port Harcourt refinery to the Cameroonian refinery by top officials of NNPC with Marc Rich a Jewish American oil commodities dealer.

Immediate past Group Managing Directors GMD, Gaius Obaseki, Funso Kupolokun, the corporations Group General Manager, Corporate and legal Sena Anthony, some foreigners and top Management of NNPC have all been fingered in series of corruption including non NNPC staff such as Prince Bola Ajibola.

However, the decision, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council at its bi-monthly meeting in Abuja, is aimed at making the country’s energy sector more efficient.

The Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum), Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, who made this known to journalists, added that five agencies had been created to handle activities in the sector.

They are the National Petroleum Directorate, the National Oil Company, the Petroleum Inspectorate Commission, the Petroleum Products Distribution Agency, and the National Oil and Gas Assets Holding and Management Company.

The NPD replaces the Ministry of Energy, while the NOC takes over the core roles of the NNPC.

The NOC is expected to go into full-time operation in the petroleum sector.

The PIC will play the roles hitherto assigned to the Department of Petroleum Resources.

Also, the functions that were carried out by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services Company are now to be handled by the NOGAHMSC.

Ajumogobia gave indications that the five agencies would report to him.

The minister explained that the scrapping of the NNPC was in line with the new National Oil and Gas Policy.

A National Council on Energy, according to him, has also been established to implement the policy within six months.

The establishment of the NCE is expected to herald the declaration of the emergency in the energy sector by the President.

The council, which will be chaired by President Umaru Yar’Adua, has Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as the deputy chairman.

Other members of the council are Ajumogobia, his counterparts in charge of Gas, Mr Olusina Emmanuel; and Power, Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim.

Also included in the Council are the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa; the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; the Minister of National Planning, Senator Sanusi Daggash; the Honorary Strategic Adviser to the President on Energy, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman; and the National Security Adviser, Gen. Ibrahim Mukhtar.

Four other members are to be appointed by the President.

Ajumogobia said, “The Council today (Wednesday) put an end to the speculation as regards the new oil and gas policy.

“The Council received memorandum on the proposed National Oil and Gas policy, the recommendation arising from the sector reform implementation committee, which was inaugurated in 2000 under the chairmanship of Lukman.

“That committee was charged with the responsibility of restructuring Nigeria ’s oil and gas sector.

“The National Council on Privatization received the report of the committee in 2005. It has been five years of work within which experts in the industry have come together to put together this report that was presented to the council.

“Almost simultaneously, the NCP had also set up a committee to look at the oil and gas industry.

“Those two reports came up at about the same time and a committee was set up under the then Minister of Petroleum Resources to harmonize the reports because there were significant overlap.

“Those two reports were presented to the council today (Wednesday) with a working document, including the one that came from the NCP.

“The only thing that was added to that report was the creation of the National Energy Council.

“The Council also approved the implementation of the National Oil and Gas Policy within a period not exceeding six months.

“One of the highlights of the new policy is the unbundling of the NNPC. This means creating five new organisations out of the existing structure.

“A new Petroleum Directorate is to be set up. A National Oil Company, that is NNPC itself as it is now known, is to be reorganised to empower it to conduct itself like any other oil and gas company.

“It will be isolated from some of its other functions. For example, the Department of Petroleum Resources currently is a department in the Ministry of Energy and this will be replaced by a commission known as Petroleum Inspectorate Commission that would be independent and empowered to monitor the industry effectively.

“There is Petroleum Product Distribution Authority, which is another new organisation. There is also the NOGAHMSC which will effectively replace NAPIMS to manage the assets that are currently being managed under the umbrella of the NNPC.

“The Council approved the constitution of the energy council which will work within the six months time frame to implement the policy”

“It is expected that the constitution of the energy council will herald the declaration of emergency in the country’s energy sector.

“The President had revealed in his address at the opening session of the recently-concluded presidential retreat that emergency will be declared after the establishment of the Council, which he said would work out ways to realise self-sufficiency in the energy sector.”