Posted by Michael Faloseyi, Abuja on
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will be reorganised and deregulated to enable it meet the challenges of a national oil company, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, has said.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will be reorganised and deregulated to enable it meet the challenges of a national oil company, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, has said.
The minister who likened the corporation to a child that refused to crawl several years after birth, said that without deregulation, it would continue to record losses in its operations.
In a meeting with the corporation's staff on Monday in Abuja, he said that his visit as the presiding minister was reminiscent of his days as the group-managing director, when the incumbent Group Managing Director, Mr. Funso Kupolokun, was a group executive director.
He said that the nature of problems they contended with was about the same with the ones facing the present management.
Daukoru said that the then management team attempted to put NNPC on course of recovering its cost on its operations.
That effort, according to him, culminated in the formation of the Petroleum Trust Fund and the accompanying fuel price increase.
Regrettably, however, that effort could not produce the desired result because of political interference and the eventual removal of the management, he said.
He said that other national oil companies established at about the same time as NNPC were doing better.
Daukoru, in an emotion-laden tone added, "We need to ask ourselves; why is it that problems like these persist for so long without solution. Can the problem be partly with us or those overseeing us? Is it a problem with the public to which all of us are accountable to?"
"How can a nation carry on like this? National oil companies formed at about the same time as NNPC have gone up to a greater height and are now role models to us. We are the baby that has refused to grow."
Daukoru, however, said that his appointment was a homecoming, "I come in peace, I come in friendship, I come as a helper. If I am able to play my role in those capacities, I would be fulfilled and I want the staff to see me as a helper that you have needed for so long," he said.
Disclosing his agenda for the industry, Daukoru said that deregulation was top on his agenda, saying it was the only solution to NNPC's problems.
He said that even if more volume of crude oil was allotted to NNPC, its problem would persist without deregulation and it would continue to record losses on its operations.
He picked on some subsidiaries of NNPC, like the Pipelines and Products Market Companies and the Nigerian Gas Company as deserving of proper scrutiny and reorganisation.
The minister also mentioned the refineries and the National Petroleum Development Company among other subsidiaries that would be accorded priority.
He said that the refineries were coming up but that the problem was how to remain stable. He, therefore, said that he would work towards cutting waste and overhead costs to ensure that they remained stable in their performance.
He said a lot would be done in PPMC, especially with the volume of debts accumulated in the course of business and wastages in the handling of products sales, adding that the NGC would be further assisted to step up its activities.
The minister said that the Federal Government was lagging behind in the set objectives on crude oil reserves and that efforts would be stepped up to cover the lost time.
The Punch, Wednesday, 20, July, 2005