NNPCL Tackles El-Rufai Over Claim Of FG Failure In Oil, Gas Sector

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on Thursday, faulted Kaduna State Governor Nasir, El-Rufai’s claim that the Federal Government has failed in the oil and gas business and should get out of the sector, characterising his assertion as ambiguous and contradictory.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State had spoken on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, saying that whatever the government managed turned out bad.

"Nothing had changed with the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company in July 2022.

"NNPC was Nigeria’s largest problem and should be privatised.”

El-Rufai insisted that NNPC Limited had failed and had no business operating in the sector, despite the best efforts of its Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.

He used Nigerian Telecommunications Limited as an example, which had no success until the private sector entered the picture and completely transformed the telecoms industry.

“I am giving this example so that when I say the government should get out of oil and gas, people should not think it is crazy; it is not.

"There is no reason the Nigerian government should still be in the oil and gas sector. It should just get out, it has failed. By every measure, it has failed.

“This year, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account.

"We are living on taxes. It is PPTs, royalties, income tax and VAT that are keeping this country going because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues. I don’t believe it,” the governor said.

In order for the nation to address the hydra-headed and long-standing issues of the sector, he further urged that the Federal Government should withdraw from and privatise the power sector.

“So, the government should sell everything in the oil and gas sector.  

"The government should get out of everything that is left of electricity, leave it to the private sector, and create the environment, and the money will come.

"We did it in the telecoms sector,” he said.

On the commercialisation of the NNPC, he said: “Nothing has changed, it’s just a change in name with limited at the end.

“Nothing has changed, they are still taking our money, declaring profit that we don’t see the dividends.”

Garba Deen Muhammad, Group General Manager of NNPCL's Group Public Affairs Division, claimed that the governor misrepresented the truth.

The governor's assertions, he explained, were contradictory and unexpected given that the information was readily available.

He argued that the claim that NNPCL had not been paying FAAC was untrue and insisted that PPT's income came from the oil sector.

“He said NNPCL has not been making remittances to FAAC and yet in the same breath, he said it is income from PPT, royalty and income tax that is keeping this country.

“The confusion is where do the PPT, royalty and income tax come from?

"The PPT is the petroleum profit tax, have you seen anybody pay profit tax without making a profit? Or pay Royalty without production?

“These things don’t just fall from the sky. These payments are possible because somebody is working hard to make it possible”, he added.