Olamide Francis
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, has said that although Nigeria was known as an oil country it is more a gas nation than oil, Nature News gathered.
The GMD made this statement during the weekend while speaking with journalists.
Kyari noted that the NNPC has received the full support of the president to operate effectively for the growth of the industry.
“I can tell you that the privilege we have today in this company of having unfettered control without any distraction or interference to make decisions and be accountable and responsible for our decisions has never happened until this government. I can tell you this because I have been around for 29 years and have worked closely with top management of the NNPC for about 15 years,” he said.
He also said the management of the corporation is independent of any external control.
”This is the only president who has never asked NNPC to do something. I have the personal privilege to have access to Mr President, to his private audience and I can tell you that under no circumstances has he controlled what we want to do. He only wants to know and be sure that what we are doing is in the best interest of the country,” he said
Mr Kyari also said that the deregulation of the downstream oil sector came with enormous challenges bit it was needed as the government can no longer afford subsidy with harsh economic impact of COVID-19. Adding to this, he said the new focus of the corporation is on gas development, saying it is the most resilient source of energy in the energy transition process.
”The only oil and gas that survived during the COVID-19 with minimal negative change was gas. Gas will help the country out of its major challenge of electricity. The biggest challenge we have here is to take electricity to homes, industries and to use the resources we have to create that energy this country needs.
”Today, the two reasons we are not getting electricity because the production is low and we are not able to transmit it to those who need it. That means there is bottleneck in transmission and distribution system,” he said