Wearing the Big Boots

Fri, Jun 28, 2013

By publisher

3 MIN READ

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The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary brace up for new crude oil production challenges ahead

|  By Maureen Chigbo   |  Jul. 8, 2103 @ 01:00 GMT

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, its subsidiary, are repositioning to better manage the assets and oil mining leases were recently acquired from Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.

Andrew Yakubu, group managing director of the NNPC, said after a board meeting of the NNPC/NPDC in Warri, Delta State, at the weekend, that both companies were ready to professionally and efficiently run the assets. Yakubu said the corporation, along with its flagship company, the NPDC, is repositioning to ensure that its acquired assets remain productive and ultimately boost the revenue inflow to the Nigerian economy.

“With the divestment of Shell, the NPDC is the top and the only option for indigenous participation that will replace the SPDC and other companies that want to divest their equities. So, the NPDC therefore, has taken over this obligation of value addition as the flagship operator of the upstream business of the NNPC. The NPDC is the gateway of capacity  and capability development of the upstream activities in Nigeria,” Yakubu said.

The activities of the NNPC/NPDC in Warri has made the NPDC the highest local producer of gas for domestic requirement in the country and this has gone a long way in meeting the federal government aspiration in the area of power generation. With the new status, the NPDC remain the biggest indigenous gas supplier in Africa.

However, this success story is now making the corporation more alive to its social responsibility. Hence, Yakubu said that as a socially responsible corporation, the NNPC/NPDC will step up its

activities in the area of providing social amenities such as class room blocks, educational scholarships, providing health facilities, roads and water to communities where its operations are domiciled. Also, by partnering with the various tiers of government to provide basic amenities to oil bearing communities, the NNPC is creating a conducive environment that would guarantee smooth operations of the acquired assets.

According to Yakubu, the NNPC/NPDC will continue to touch the lives of Nigerians in many positive ways. He said the assurances from the Warri communities indicate that the coming of the NPDC to Warri would help in sustaining community development efforts in line with international best practices.

It would be recalled that through the support and vision of Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum resources, the NNPC/NPDC took over the management of some OMLs in the bid to meet the aggressive target of producing 250,000 barrels of crude per day in 2015.