By Edith Ike-Eboh
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, says Nigeria would no longer pay subsidy on petrol with the ongoing global oil price decline.
Kyari disclosed this in a statement signed by NNPC spokesman, Dr Kennie Obateru, in Abuja on Monday.
The NNPC boss said this while he featured as a guest in a morning television programme.
“There is no subsidy and it is zero forever, going forward there will be no resort to either subsidy or under recovery of any nature.
“NNPC will play in the marketplace, it will just be another marketer in the space. But we will be there for the country to sustain security of supply at market price,” he said.
Kyari stated that NNPC was a transparent organisation, saying the National Oil Company was probably the only company in the world that published its monthly financial and operations reports.
He said the corporation was proud of the initiative, and assured Nigerians of NNPC’s commitment and observance of transparency and accountability in all its transactions.
He disclosed that as at April 5, Nigeria produced 2.3 million barrels of crude oil, including condensates.
He maintained that the plan was for the country to ramp up production to three million barrels per day in the nearest future.
Kyari said Nigeria was endowed with premium crude oil grades supplied to Europe, Asia and India.
He added that not withstanding the COVID-19 pandemic which had affected demand and supply fundamentals, all Nigeria’s export terminals were still in operations.
“The key issue in crude oil business is market fundamentals of demand/supply. I believe COVID-19 will subside and countries will come back to life.
“I don’t see oil price going below the 20 dollars we saw last week. I’m certain, all things being equal, oil price will bounce back,” he added.
The NNPC’s helmsman assured Nigerians of ample supply and distribution of petroleum products.
He explained that in spite of the Coronavirus pandemic, the corporation had in stock about 2.6 billion litres of petroleum products that could service the country’s energy needs for the next two months.
He stated that the NNPC was collaborating with all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the supply and distribution value chain was not disrupted to guarantee energy security for the country.
On Industry contribution to contain the spread of Coronavirus, he said that they would construct at least two hospitals and a world class diagnostic centre in each geopolitical zone.
He said that the gesture was part of the sectors contribution to build a robust healthcare system for Nigeria.
He noted that the centres were additions to the 250 temporary bed facilities that it had offered to support government’s efforts in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic.
He said the hospitals and the world class diagnostics centres would be an addition to the regular Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the Upstream and Downstream companies, as well as service providers operating in the Oil and Gas Industry.
Kyari said that all commitments from the Industry would be collected in kind and handed over to the Presidential Taskforce for the Control of Coronavirus. (NAN)
