NNPC top Management probed

NNPC top mgt will be probed

Prseident- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari administration will replace the top management of the NNPC.

It will also review the accounts of the oil company to restore credibility

It said the new government will submit a bill to break the NNPC into four entities, as already prescribed in the latest PIB draft.

An APC member said that the Bill will also remove the oil minister from the NNPC’s board of directors to curb political interference.

Others said more generally that the minister’s current powers would be heavily trimmed.

Oil and gas will have separate companies for upstream, with a third covering pipelines and refining, while a fourth will be an inspectorate.

The proposal could be submitted to parliament in the first quarter of next year, one parliamentary

An APC member said the NNPC Management is made up of Group Managing Director Dr. Joseph T. Dawha; Group Executive Director, Finance & Accounts Mr. Bernard O.N. Otti; Group Executive Director, Corporate Services Dr. Dan Efebo, and Member, Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar, who make up the Board.
The Board is chaired by petroleum minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and members are Mr. Danladi Wadzani, Prof. Olusegun Okunnu; Mr. Danladi Kifasi, Mr. Steven Oronsaye, and Mr. Ikechukwu Oguine, Coordinator, Legal Services/Secretary to the Corporation.

A reporter  said oil firms keen to know how the new government plans to tax them, and wanting to know how the President-elect will put an end to corruption and reforming the opaque national oil company his most urgent sector priority
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Strong APC member said the issue of fiscal terms, seen as crucial by the industry, will have to wait on current thinking about oil and gas policies in Nigeria.

Crude output has stagnated close to 2 million barrels per day over the past few years, owing partly to underinvestment.
“We need to address the structural issues and leave the fiscal for now,

Senator Bukola Saraki, said“A more transparent NNPC) is needed with reasonable accounting,” he said.
Buhari owes his March 28 victory against incumbent Goodluck Jonathan partly to a perception that Jonathan allowed corruption to get out of control -- especially in the oil sector.

A string of multibillion dollar oil corruption scandals tainted the NNPC and other bodies that handle energy.

By contrast, Buhari was seen as one of the few Nigerian leaders to have cracked down on corruption during his military rule in 1983-1985.
Many Nigerians hope he will again.

APC leader Bola Tinubu, whose support led to Buhari’s victory and wields huge influence, said a transitional committee would be set up.
“No way will we discuss that now,” he said.

Jonathan’s administration re-drafted a Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in 2012 that had been in the works for a decade.

The PIB was meant to change everything from fiscal terms to overhauling the NNPC, environmental rules and revenue sharing, but its other details caused disputes amongst lawmakers.
Yet the main thing the oil companies were worried about was tax. The bill proposes 20 percent tax on offshore projects and 50 percent for onshore. Shell, Exxon and other majors had all complained publicly that the terms were unfair, given the risk associated with operating in Nigeria.
Uncertainty over the fiscal terms of the bill have been holding back billions of dollars of investment, especially into capital-intensive deepwater offshore, leading some to propose the bill be broken up into several pieces and debated separately.
“It doesn’t need to be an omnibus, you can take things piecemeal,” one APC source said.
The average Nigerian benefits little from the country’s huge energy resources while politicians wear gold watches and build monster homes in the capital Abuja, Reuters said.
World Bank support for NNPC probe
The World Bank reportedly supports Mr Mohammadu Buhari to probe the NNPC.
Speaking during a video conferencing from Washington to journalists from across Africa on the release of the bank’s ana