Chika Amanze-Nwachuku And Fidelia Okwuonu
31 August 2007
Lagos — Reactions yesterday greeted Thursday's approval by the Federal Government for the unbundling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into five new organizations as industry players differ on what will be the place of the corporation between now and six month's time when the new policy will take effect.
However, the President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Segun Husenwe has described it as a welcome development, noting that it will make the oil companies autonomous and quickens decision makings.
But his National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) counterpart, Mr. Peter Akpattason, has called for further clarification on the whole issue in view of the fact that the law setting up the NNPC is yet to repealed.
He argued that it was controversial for the federal government to effect the changes based on a new law in place, when the old one has not been repealed. "There is an act sitting up NNPC, that act is yet to be repelled and aside, there are some controversies in the new pronouncement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), a situation where a new law is coming into existence without repealing the old one, and the new one is already coming to take effect, how the effect is concurrent with the old one is what we don't understand and this would require answers to make the situation clearer.
"They are talking about scrapping the NNPC and coming up with the National Oil Company (NOC), unbundling PPMC and the rest of the agencies, we actually don't know how that configuration would affect the Group executive Council (GEC) of NNPC and how it would affect the work force in terms of numbers and in terms of posting and in terms of general industrial relation issues.
All these are posers for us and we believe they require very quick answers. Until we get enough details, we might not be able to provide answers to these" he asserted.
However, in a swift reaction, the Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the defunct NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma argued that the NNPC has not been scrapped as widely reported yesterday, but has been unbundled into five organizations.
According to him, the FEC at the said meeting "simply approved a new National Oil and Gas Policy and the commencement of the implementation of the policy as enshrined in the road-map for the restructuring of the oil and gas industry", adding, "the government approved duration for the implementation exercise is six months".
"The FEC approved the establishment of the National Energy Council to serve as a supra-Ministerial advisory body for the energy industry.
Under the new arrangement, five new companies will emerge. These include: The National' Petroleum Directorate; National Petroleum Company of Nigeria; Petroleum Inspectorate Commission; Petroleum Products Distribution Authority; and National Oil and Gas Assets Holding and Management Services Company.
"A new National Oil Company, to be known as the National Petroleum Company of Nigeria (NAPCON), which will have seven directorates including: Upstream; Refinery & Petrochemical; Marketing and Investments; Gas & Power; Engineering & Technology; Finance and Accounts; and Corporate Services will replace the current NNPC".
Ajuonuma noted however that the "corporation would be divorced of some of its current roles of policy regulation and national assets management to function properly as a profit-oriented, commercial and duly-capitalized limited liability company with rights to raise funds for its projects and operations, adding that an Implementation Committee has been constituted by the President Umar Musa Yar'Adua on the new policy, which is aimed at efficient management of the nation's hydrocarbon resources in line with international best practices.
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