OpeOluwani Akintayo
01 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has said that it is working towards drawing down the contracting process to 6 months.
This was revealed to Sweetcrude Reports on the sideline of the interactive session at the ongoing Nigerian Annual International Conference and Exhibition 2017 organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE, on Tuesday.
According to Mr Ronald Ewubare who represented the Chief Operating Officer, Upstream NNPC, Bello Rabiu, putting right all the wrongs in the Corporation, is key to attaining excellence and efficiency in the petroleum sector hence, the move to cut down the too-long-and-bureaucratic current contracting circle to 6 months.
“If we don’t fix NNPC and get things right, nothing fantastic will happen in the way of national development. That is why NNPC is working to drive down the contracting process to 6 months and not 11 years,” he said.
He said the oil and gas sector is still very key to Nigeria as it contributes the most to the economy in terms of finance.
“The IOCs alone contribute $16 billion to Nigeria’s economy yearly so, we are key and if we remain efficient, the whole country will be efficient. All of that can’t happen until we fix NNPC”, he said.
Ewubare said moving towards efficiency, also means that NNPC will begin to see itself as a competitor in the business by comparing itself to the likes of Saudi Aramco, Total, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, PETRONAS, Malaysian oil and gas company (PETROBRAS) and others.
“If NNPC wants to be efficient, it must begin to compare itself to its peers in the likes of Chevron, Total, ExxonMobil, PETROBRAS, PETRONAS, Saudi Aramco, Shell and others and not the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said.
On NNPC still being politicised, Ewubare said the syndrome would not go away within just a few years as expected, saying governmental interest in NNPC, is affecting its operations.
“As much as we are trying politicians are still meddling in the affairs of NNPC. It still has some governmental interests which we have to do away with for the Corporation to succeed. And we can’t achieve noninterference within two years. Yet, we hope to achieve independence soon” he said.
