The special adviser to the president on petroleum matters, Emmanuel Egbogah, has urged members of staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to brace up for the eventual transformation of the corporation, which is the major component of the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

In a statement on Tuesday, the NNPC said that Mr. Egbogah gave this admonishment while delivering a keynote address in Abuja to senior staff of the corporation to kick start the zonal NNPC town hall meeting/road shows on transformation.

The presidential adviser said that for the proposed change to produce the desired effect, workers in the corporation must be ready to make themselves agents of change through their day-to-day official responsibilities and behaviour. “Transformation of the NNPC will enable the company to meet the aspirations of the key stakeholders and the generality of Nigerians,” he said.

Commitment is essential

Mr. Egbogah said, “Effective transformation in any society or organisation does not happen by accident or through directives and instructions handed down from management or the leaders. It can only be achieved through the collaboration and commitment of management and staff at all levels to implement a pre-planned set of activities and initiatives.”

He urged the management and staff of the NNPC to embrace the new entrepreneurial culture that would enable it to compete with other jurisdictions with huge hydrocarbon resources, saying that the transformation is capable of promoting social and economic development of the country.

According to Mr. Egbogah, the development of the NNPC is imperative, considering the significant role that the oil and gas sector plays in Nigeria’s economy. He revealed that the sector accounts for about 30-40 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, 85 per cent of government revenue, and about 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings.

“The transformation of PETRONAS of Malaysia has significant poignancy for Nigeria as both countries share similar development challenges, as well as similar aspirations of economic and national development,” the special adviser said.

Urgent reform

Meanwhile, Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, the group managing director of the NNPC, said that in recent years the corporation has recorded series of negative postings in cash flow, hence the need for urgent reform to save the corporation from insolvency.

Mr. Barkindo said, “The management of the corporation has adopted five key strategies, namely: set up NNPC for growth, turn around maintenance of refineries, build retail and integrated trading business, build gas and power plan, and develop new partnership model in order to put the corporation on the path of profit.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Emuren, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, is optimistic that that the transformation of the NNPC would reposition the company for good and put it on the right frame, where the majority of Nigerians would benefit from the oil and gas resources of the country.

The petroleum bill

While briefing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on the state of the refineries in the country, last week, Mr. Barkindo said the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd., a subsidiary of the NNPC, currently produces an average of 1.5 million litres of fuel daily after its “turnaround maintenance which was executed within budget.”

Mr. Barkindo urged the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Bill into law, saying that its passage would create an enabling environment for the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, which would ease the present fuel supply and distribution burden on the corporation.

“We at the NNPC would continue to do the best we can to ensure that fuel supply and distribution reaches every nook and cranny of this country until the passage of the PIB; but I must confess to you that the current situation is not sustainable, considering the huge cost borne by the corporation,” he said.


Link:

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Money/Business/5548504-146/presidential_adviser_appeals_to_nnpc_.csp

We are all watching

lol can you imagine shell and texaco etc were all talking shiot about NNPC going private