Disclosing this with the staff of the Nigerian state-owned company, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Malam Mele Kyari said the strategic move would see the corporation letting go of some of its core responsibilities.

According to him, the restructuring became imperative following the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) bill, which he said has provided the organisation with the opportunity to unburden itself from needless and toxic liabilities.

The new PIA is also expected to make NNPC become the largest and most capitalised company in Africa.

Kyari stressed that the importance of PIA to the state-owned firm and Nigeria’s economy cannot be overemphasised, noting that the act would provide opportunities to the company to earn more revenue for the country.

Kyari said the act had raised shareholders’ expectations on the company as well as given NNPC a wide room to make progress. “The PIA has put all money-making options on the table; it is up to us to take advantage of it,” he said.

The NNPC boss also charged staff of the organization to ensure that the company becomes a commercially viable entity and a multi-billion-dollar entity that would continuously deliver value to its shareholders.

What you should know

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, on August 16, 2021, signed the PIA into law, after many controversies and setbacks.

Buhari assented to the bill after it was passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly in July and almost 20 years after it was first introduced. This development, at the time, represented a significant milestone for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

The President had also in September 2021, ordered the incorporation of the NNPC with an initial capital of N200 billion, in a bid to prepare the Federal Government for the PIA.

The post NNPC To Restructure, Here’s Why appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

In the latest development on the possible increment of petrol, oil marketers under the aegis of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) warned that the rising cost of petrol at depots would definitely warrant a commensurate increase in pump price if not checked.

According to the petrol dealers, going by the market challenge and reality, the commodity is projected to rise from the current N162-N165 per litre to N170 per litre for consumers.

The dealers also hinted that the commodity’s depot price is projected to increase from N159 per litre to N165 per litre.

On the possibility of a hike in the pump price of petrol soon, the National Public Relations Officer, IPMAN, Chief Ukadike Chinedu said it was inevitable if the current increase in depot price persists.

Asked if the high depot cost could result in an increase in pump price, he replied, “Yes, because if you look at our profit margin, you will realise that it is regulated and fixed.

“And they (government) often talk about deregulation. But you cannot do deregulation in a regulated market. There is a band and you say you are doing deregulation.

“So for marketers, any moment from now, we will be pushed to take the band above N165 to N170 if this situation continues.”

Chinedu further argued that there had been problems with product availability, contrary to the position of the NNPC that it had enough petrol that would last for months.

The IPMAN spokesperson said, “I want you to know that the availability of petrol is a problem. Most tank farms don’t have products. And the place to go and buy product is from the few ones that have.

“And as a result, profiteering will set in and they will be selling at N159 to N160/litre. You (marketers) will now consider moving the product to your filling stations, particularly for marketers who don’t get bridging claims.

“Now this marketer will pay close to N100,000 to be able to send the product to his station. Now when the product gets to his station, that product’s cost is almost at N163/litre. So, will he use only N2 margin to sell petrol, knowing that he will pay staff, power bill, taxes, etc?”

Chinedu added, “Marketers should not be held responsible when the pump price increases. Many tank farms don’t have products. So marketers don’t have any option because if they buy, they sell.

“If there is surplus you will see marketers selling at N162/litre or below, but right now you hardly find anyone selling at that price. I also want to let you know that by next week, products will be close to N165/litre at depots.”

The President PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, confirmed the position of IPMAN, noting that retailers of petrol at filling stations would adjust their prices upwards beyond the N165/litre if depots continued to sell at unapproved rates.

He said, “Private depot owners have increased their prices arbitrarily by themselves. Most retail outlets are very disciplined now by keeping the pump price within the band.

“But if the depots keep maintaining the N157 to N159/litre as they are doing, there will be no choice for retail outlet owners but to also add the commensurate price to it. That’s the reality.”

NNPC advises Nigerians not to panic, says petrol price will remain…

Contrary to insinuation by the marketers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) maintained its stance that it had enough petrol to last the country all through the festive season and beyond, and there is no reason to panic.

The post Petrol Price May Increase Soon, Here’s Why appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Unmask NG learnt that Ike was interrogated over an account belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in which about $200 million was hidden.

Polaris Bank and NNPC’s Bromance

The committee invited the NNPC for an explanation of the circumstances surrounding the hidden account, while asking the bank to forward evidence of the remittance within one week.

Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, had noted that a special prosecutor to the defunct Special Presidential Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Tosin Ojaomo, raised the alarm over the alleged maintenance of an account with the Deposit Money Bank (DMB) against the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

He said, “In the course of our ongoing inquiry, we did find out that there were depositions; they alleged that there were infractions by your bank and there were gaps in the records supplied by some of these agencies, and you have been invited to give your side of the story.”

Polaris Bank’s defence

In his defence, Ike who represented the financial institution formerly known as Skye Bank, before the committee, disclosed that Polaris Bank forwarded the balance to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in compliance with the TSA policy of the Federal Government.

Ike, in his presentation, recalled that when the defunct Skye Bank was enmeshed in financial and administrative crises, it was difficult to meet its obligations.

According to him, huge credit facilities were granted to operators in the petroleum sector following a major crash in global oil prices.

He further recalled that the CBN, in July 2016, dissolved the board of the erstwhile Skye Bank and Polaris Bank took over the assets and liabilities of the erstwhile Skye Bank.

Ike noted that it was a normal banking service to the NNPC, adding that the account was opened before the TSA policy was introduced.

His words: “Permit me to conclude that the money deposited at Skye Bank and Polaris Bank was at no time hidden from any government agency and, therefore, we do not believe that it should be classified as looted funds at all.

“At that same time, the bank, among other things, was unable to honour the directive to remit all government funds to the TSA, inclusive of the NNPC fund. So, when we came on board, it was one of the challenges that we had to deal with at that point in time.

“The account was opened in early 2012. The first transfer was about $30m. Subsequently, some more money actually came in.

“So, it was an all banking relationship. But then, when these instructions were issued, the bank was not able to remit this money as directed because of the liquidity issue.

“The bank lent out money particularly to the oil and gas sector. Because of the challenges that the sector had gone through earlier, customers were not able to pay back all the money at the time that was required to enable the banker to pay the money.

“Somewhere along the line, the Federal Government, through the disbanded Special Investigation Panel for Recovery of Looted Property instituted a suit against Polaris Bank on the same matter.

“In 2019 February, in demonstration of our commitment to begin to repay the money, we made a proposal to begin to make an instalment payment of $10m monthly and we started payment the same month.

“Because the Federal Government found merit in our case and since we began the payment, subsequently the government had pleaded that the monthly payment should be entered as consent judgment, and it was so done.

“As of today, we have made a total payment of $224,324,958.75 which was outstanding as of February 19. Today, we, therefore, have nothing – not a dollar, nor a cent – outstanding in Polaris Bank in favour of NNPC. We have attached evidence of payment and remittances.”

It however remains unclear if Polaris Bank has been serving government parastatals, and individuals as a mechanism for shady deals.

The post Is Polaris Bank Promoting Fraud? appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

According to the Group General Manager/Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Garba Deen Muhammad, the conversion would run with the official launch of the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), from Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Muhammad hinted that the launch would also announce the formal dispensing of autogas – Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) – products at two Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), retail stations.

While explaining the purpose of the programme, he said that the rollout is the culmination of the resolve of the Buhari-led government to deepen domestic usage of natural gas in several forms.

He added that the programme was in line with the government’s agenda to make gas the number one source of cheaper and cleaner energy for Nigerians in both industrial and personal efforts.

He said: “The Federal Government Autogas program will deliver at least one million vehicle conversions by the end of 2021 and herald the clean energy transition for Nigeria and delivery of cheap transportation fuel.”

Speaking on the development, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva revealed that the Federal Government was working towards making the cost for the conversion affordable to all Nigerians.

Sylva stated that the Federal Government was intensifying efforts to provide Nigerians with autogas to reduce the effects of rising costs of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol.

In the same vein, he stated that while some government official vehicles were already being converted, some cars in the president’s fleet would also be converted to run on autogas.

He however urged conversion centers to make vehicles and user safety a primary focus.

What you should know

Recall that in September, the federal government disclosed that Nigerians could start the conversion of cars using petrol to gas, with effect from October 2020.

To enable Nigerians key into this development, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) also authorised 9,000 filling stations across the country to begin the installation of facilities for gas products.

Amongst other things, one of the benefits of converting cars using petrol to gas is that it will literally save most Nigerians from fuel cost. Asides from this, filling an autogas involves a sealed process, which means that it is environmentally beneficial to the health.

The post How FG Tends To Tackle Cost Of Transportation appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

According to the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC, it had authorized the price increasing which is a difference of N7.50 kobo. The new price of NGN155.17 kobo will lead to fuel price ranging between N167 and N175 per litre.

Speaking on the development, the National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, asserted that the N7 increase in ex-depot price would translate into an increase in pump prices.

He said: “The implication of the increase in the ex-depot price is that there is going to be an increase in the pump price. We are expecting the pump price to range from N168 to N170 per litre.

“Crude oil price is going up,” he said, noting that the Federal Government has fully deregulated petrol prices.

 In an internal memo directed to Executive Director, Commercial (EDC) of the PPMC with reference number PPMC/C/MK/003 and  signed by Tijani Ali, it stated that the EDC may refer to the management directives in respect of the above subject (PPMC PMS prices for November 2020).

The Memo partly reads: “In line with the above, we propose PPMC November 2020 actual prices for PMS with effect from 13th November 2020, as follows: PPMC Ex-Coastal Price for PMS N130 per litre; PPMC Ex-Depot Price (With collection) N155.17  per litre. Above is submitted for your consideration and approval.”

Despite the largely unchanged international crude oil price in the last three month, the Managing Director of PPMC approved the new price which has been moving from $40 and $42 per barrel.

Recall that the executive secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Abdulkadir Saidu disclosed that the international price of crude oil is not the only determining factor in fixing the retail pump price of petrol as other metrics come into consideration.

Similarly, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva stated  that the government had stepped back in fixing the price of petrol and therefore the market forces and crude oil price would continue to determine the cost of the product.

It is pertinent to know that the Federal Government had removed fuel subsidy to allow the market regulate fuel price in line with international market crude oil price.

The post Nigerians To Henceforth Buy Petrol At Higher Prices appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

According to Onyeama, it became needful for the CBN and NNPC to cater for the returnees after Nigerians condemned the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for requesting N290,000 from evacuees for their welfare.

The minister said the N1bn is not only budgeted for the returnees’ feeding but their hotel accommodation as well.

Onyeama’s words; “We are talking of over N1bn because till now, we have about 4,000 Nigerians out there and if 3,000 of them come back, the cost of accommodation, feeding and everything else is over N1bn that we don’t have and he said he is ready to explore and share with the NNPC.

“I spoke to the GMD of NNPC and he said he is going to consult. So, we kept fingers crossed and thanks be to God, today (Monday), he got back to me to say he was going to meet up with the governor of central bank and together, they would fund the portion – accommodation and feeding of evacuees, so we can go forward in a better environment.”

Wild reactions 

Just as expected, the disclosed plan has resulted in wild reactions from Nigerians, who took to social media to slam the CBN and NNPC.

While some wonder how the CBN and NNPC will source for the N1 billion, others claim that the disclosed plan is tantamount to daylight robbery.

Here’s what we think

It is not surprising that these two public agencies are collaborating to only feed 3,000 people with N1 billion. NNPC in particular is a cesspool of monumental corruption. The agency has overtime been enmeshed in sharp business practises, illegal deductions of funds, violation of laid down rules/regulations, and failure to account for several billions of naira that should go to the federation account. Amongst many of the corporation’s corrupt practises NNPC is known for, is subsidy claims.

What’s your reservation on the disclosed plan to feed 3,000 people with N1 billion?

The post COVID-19: CBN and NNPC accused of daylight robbery, here’s why appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.