Theophilus Abbah
23 August 2007
The country's giant petroleum parastatal is to be split in an attempt by the federal government to tackle corruption in the industry, Daily Trust has learnt. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), will be divided into independent agencies, while the government will also use this opportunity to rationalise officers it believed to have colluded with oil companies in a web of corruption and fraud.
The new NNPC will also be given responsibility to maintain refineries which contracts used to be awarded to political favourites.
The NNPC which is in charge of the refining and distribution of petroleum products, has been operating as a body and controls several subsidiaries.
Daily Trust gathered that the Ministry of Energy is working on the details of the reforms in the energy sector which include the "unbundling" of the corporation. But a source close to the presidency revealed that Yar'A-dua took the decision to "dismantle" the NNPC after he was given graphic details of the extent of corruption in the corporation and how various departments created loopholes which were exploited by officials.
The source said, "In a probe, it has been discovered that many NNPC officials are collaborating with foreign oil companies to defraud the country.
All these officials may be asked to leave. We are expecting a far-reaching reform at the NNPC. Sections and policies that gave room to all sorts of fraud are being looked into and the corporation may be split into smaller agencies and parastatals. The reform will affect both the upstream and downstream sectors."
Furthermore, the government may soon probe the sale of oil blocs to some Nigerians and foreign companies by former President Oluse-gun Obasanjo in his last days. This is being done following indications that their sale by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) were not in accordance with the rules. There are fears that after investigations, the sale of many of the oil blocs may be revoked.
A few months before his exit, former President Obas-anjo approved the sale of about 100 oil blocks, a decision that attracted criticisms from trade unions in the petroleum industry.
There were speculations that the oil blocs were sold to cronies of the ex-president and to those who raised funds to finance Obasanjo's tenure extension project which was eventually abo-rted.
In the same vein, the repair of both the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries may be handled by the NNPC's technical department as against the previous tradition of awarding the contracts for turn-around-maintenance (TAM) to politicians who would in turn give the jobs to third parties. In the process, the refineries were never repaired, forcing the government to import petroleum products for domestic use.
The source told Daily Trust that: "It has been discovered that the oil blocs were sold to the cronies of the former president. All sorts of politicians who have no business with the oil industry got oil blocs. Transcorp got oil blocs".
It has been revealed that all sorts of fraudulent practices took place in the process and those sales may soon be revoked.
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