NNPC Seeks to Dominate Africa’s Oil Market

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is aiming to become the leading national oil company (NOC) in Africa in the next three years.
The Chief Strategist at the NNPC, Mr. Bala Wunti disclosed this.

Wunti, who is the Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy of the NNPC, said the corporation had developed a three-phased corporate strategy with which it plans to leverage oil and gas market opportunities in the continent.
These strategies, he added would come into full fledge by 2021.

He explained in the latest edition of the quarterly in-house publication of the NNPC – the NNPC Magazine – that by then, the NNPC expects it would have expanded its business footprints beyond the shores of Nigeria first as a net exporter of refined petroleum products, and then a hub for other hydrocarbon businesses.
According to him, the corporation would have within this plan, ramped up its domestic refining capacity to about 650, 000 barrels per day (bd) up by about 205,000bd.

Wunti, explained the corporation adopted a survival phase which would last until 2018; a consolidation phase – expected to kick in 2019; and then a long-term phase – taking off and becoming full-fledged by 2021, as the three-phased corporate strategy it was pursuing.
“While our strategy department is in charge of strategy development and business model formulation, our Corporate Planning Department (CPD) is in charge of our planning and budgeting process. Key performance indicators are established to monitor performance and ensure our business plans achieve the desired strategic objectives,” he said.

According to him, the corporate strategy for the NNPC was in three phases of short term survival phase; midterm consolidation phase and long-term growth phase respectively.
He said the survival phase was in 2018 where the corporation’s primary focus was to ensure the corporation stayed afloat by keeping its cost well under control below its revenues.

“Under this stage we have to seek to resolve protracted legal and commercial stalemates hindering us from taking major investment decisions that have long term growth implications.
“This includes, resolving Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) arbitrations; Escravos Gas-to-Liquids (EGTL) project disputes as well as taking Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on critical upstream projects,” he stated.
The second phase, Wunti added, “involves midterm consolidation phase where the corporation would be seeking to achieve major milestones most of which align with national aspirations as enshrined in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).”

This step, he explained included achieving three million barrels per day (mbd) average oil production, 45 billion reserves, Incorporated Joint Venture (IJV) implementation, Seven Critical Gas Development Plan (7CGDP), five billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas to domestic market and growing NNPC refining capacity to about 650, 000 barrels per day (bd).
“In the long term, post, 2021, we see NNPC achieving long term growth by expanding its footprints beyond the shores of the country, becoming a net exporter of products and dominating the West African region,” Wunti noted.