… As Nigeria Inches Closer To Finding Oil In Chad Basin
BEVERLY HILLS, November 08, (THEWILL) – The group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ibe Kachikwu, at the weekend, said the Corporation was projecting the inflow of investments worth $20 billion in 2016 that would enable it fund major projects and improve its bottom line.
In a presentation to the Petroleum Club, Lagos titled “Ongoing Reforms in the Oil Industry: Impact of NNPC Reforms on the Nigerian Economy,” Kachikwu said the Corporation was injecting a lot of energy into the effort to ensure success in this regard.
He described 2016 as a crucial year for the NNPC as it expects to transit from a historic loss environment to a profit making domain.
In a related development, the GMD also indicated that the country may be on the verge of a significant oil find in the Lake Chad area of Nigeria’s North East. This, he said, was based on the analysis of recent 3D seismic data generated from the Chad Basin.
“There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may well be very close to being found now in Lake Chad after very many years of trials. I think that this is very key,” Kachikwu said.
According to him, “it is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and it is also very key for the purpose of refinery placement in the North in terms of access to crude, and I am optimistic that by the end of the year, we should be able to announce something major on this. ’’
Kachikwu also noted that some key areas of urgent intervention have been identified to help in driving and developing the Nigerian oil and gas sector. They include running production acreages with transparent and profitable partnerships to bridge capacity and funding gaps, encouraging investment inflow into to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, and engagement with local communities.
Others are driving regulation to develop the sector and fast-tracking the petroleum industry bill
(PIB) to clarify direction and encourage long-term investment in the industry.
Commenting further on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the NNPC boss noted that to achieve quick passage of the bill, it is crucial to isolate the fiscal regime from the current draft and move quickly to work on other pressing aspects of the proposed oil reform legislation.
He re-iterated that the Corporation under his watch is rigorously executing “20 Fixes” project which identified 20 critical issues that need to be addressed in order to re-position the 37 years old national oil corporation on the track of efficiency and profitability.
The targets are to reduce and audit cost, restructure corporate centre and staffing, renegotiate existing contracts, including PSCs, streamline subsidy management, boost pipeline security, enhance transparency and accountability, achieving zero tolerance for corruption, rebrand NNPP and unbundle PPMC.
Other initiatives include unbundling of the Nigerian Gas Company, reduce contracting cycle, restructure refineries, improve information technology to drive business, embed staff and business performance management, restructure JV funding and reduce Cash Call, improve retail profitability , deploy and attract focused investments, re-kit NPDC, expand crude marketing and generate power profitability.
In the area of engagement with host communities, Kachikwu stated that, in the years ahead, NNPC as the senior partner in the various Joint Venture arrangements must take leadership in fostering a healthy and symbiotic host community engagement outlook which must focus on what he called “What the communities want us to do for them.’’
