The financial transactions of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will be published periodically to ensure transparency beginning from next month, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said.
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At a meeting with members of the Independent Petroleum Producers Association in the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, President Buhari commended their determination to increase the participation of Nigerians in the country’s oil industry.
Nigeria produces some two million barrels of crude a day but despite its huge reserves, the country imports much of its fuel due to a lack of refining capability, a situation blamed on corruption and mismanagement.
“We have the manpower for a more effective participation in our oil industry”.
“We called for the meeting because we realised we needed to engage with Mr President, because we identify with all his policy direction”.
A fresh round of trouble could be lurking in the corner for the Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari as the price of oil has dropped to $42 per barrel. “You certainly won’t be ignored under my leadership”, the statement quoted the president as saying.
The president in statement by Garba Shehu, his media aide, assured the oil traders that his government would take proper actions to keep and heighten security in their areas of operation, stating that better security would help to lower production costs, which, he said, had become unnecessarily high in the country.
Austin Avuru, who represented the Nigerian oil producers, was cited as making known to Buhari problems now being faced by the group such as security and the funding of joint ventures with the NNPC.
He explained that with other companies coming up with smaller refineries and in partnership with the NNPC, the group was confident that it would meet the target of 1.2 million barrels of refined oil daily. Avuru added this is because the key segments of the oil and gas sector, especially the swamp and the onshore segment is now in the hands of Nigerian independent producers who have in the past 5 years invested over $9billion in acquiring these assets and have been investing over $1billion each year in work programme investment which he said is growing.
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“And we anticipate that in the next 5years by 2020 we will account for 30 per cent production of about 3 million barrels per day that is very significant especially when in addition to that we account for half of the total gas delivery to the domestic market”.
