One Year After, Oil Stakeholders Laud Kyari’s Leadership In NNPC
As Mele Kyari marks his first year in office today at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), players in the oil and gas industry are showering his leadership with plaudits.
Kyari’s leadership at the NNPC has been marked by a string of peaceful resolutions that have oiled the bond in the oil and gas community. It may, for example, be recalled that a succession of upstream successes owing to harmony have sustained the resolution of the intractable Shell/Belema Oil–OML 25 Community crisis. For over two years, the host communities in Kula Kingdom of Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State were pitted in a bitter conflict against the operator over sundry community issues.
The mediation of the Kyari-led NNPC management culminated in rapprochement that did not only guarantee restoration of peace to the host communities and environs, but also ensured the restoration of 35,000 barrels daily production of crude oil.
Since Kyari took office, the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), an NNPC upstream subsidiary in charge of acquisition and interpretation of seismic data, achieved 20 per cent year-on-year revenue growth and completion of eight reservoir studies alongside the upgrade of IDSL’s data processing centre.
Also, in the frontier basin, a new crude oil and gas province was unveiled to the world with the discovery of commercial hydrocarbon deposits in Kolmani River II Well in Gongola Basin, Upper Benue trough. The feat brought to a successful climax over 40 years of spirited search for commercial crude oil deposits in the inland sedimentary basin. The discovery awaits presidential launch.
Commenting on Kyari’s leadership, Publicity secretary of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Mr. Lateef Amodu, said, in one year, Kyari has been able to stabilise the industry through robust policies that have helped stakeholders make informed investment decisions.
He added that Kyari’s focus on infrastructure development would go a long way in bridging the needs gap of the industry, saying last week’s flag-off of the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kano-Kaduna (AKK) gas pipeline project was a good instance.
He equally scored Kyari high for being the first NNPC GMD since the creation of the corporation to publish its audited financial statement (AFS).
Many stakeholders have described the 2018 AFS as a game changer for the industry, noting that investors are getting to know that allegations of opaqueness often associated with the corporation might be untrue after all. They insisted that the AFS would open up the industry for fresh foreign direct investment (FDI).
The AFS is a full disclosure of the corporation’s books, involving those of 19 strategic business units and a corporate services unit.More in Home
The corporation has disclosed that its 2019 AFS would be ready in a couple of months.
A member of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in Apapa, Lagos, Cletus Adaba, said, within the last 12 months, an appraisal of the fuel supply and distribution system in the country would indicate the total disappearance of fuel queues.
‘‘Significant as this feat may appear, a further inquest into the downstream activities would reveal the entrenchment of measures, which would not only provide the uninterrupted supply and distribution of petroleum products but would guarantee efficient and accountable availability of fuel from vessel to the final fuel tank of the consumers,” he noted.
Many stakeholders, including the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has commended Mallam Kyari for his leadership in rallying stakeholders in the oil and gas Industry to provide material support to the Federal Government as well as state governments in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
SOURCE: nationaleconomy.com
