Nnaji: NNPC Has Capacity to Become Great Like Its Peers Globally

Dike Onwuamaeze

A former Minister of Power, Prof Bart Nnaji, has declared that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has the capacity to compete with its peers globally.

Nnaji made the declaration yesterday during a meeting of his company’s executives with KSE Engineers and Investment Partners of Turkey at the Geometric Power Limited’s headquarters in Aba, Abia State.

He said: “When the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation became the NNPCL in July 2022, many people around the globe thought it was a mere rebranding or even a mere change of name. Now, all of us are today astonished at the professionalism exhibited by the new NNPCL leaders.

“The new NNPCL is not working like a state-owned enterprise noted in Nigeria for ineffectiveness and inefficiency. But rather like professionals from Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and the rest.

“Going by what we have seen with some NNPCL member organisations such as the NNPC Exploration and Production (NEPL) and the NNPC Upstream Investment and Management Service (NUIMS), the NNPCL can, with time, become a successful globally respected global state-owned enterprise from the developing world like Petrobras of Brazil and Petronas of Malaysia,” he stated.

The Geometric power, which owns Aba Power Limited, would be receiving natural gas supplies from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area in Abia State to fire its 188mw power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, a distance of 27 kilometres, in a joint venture between the NNPCL and Heirs Holding Company over the operation of the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 oil field.

The OML 17 was operated for decades by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) until three years ago when the federal government declined to renew its licence and handed it over to the NNPCL as part of the process of technology transfer and increase of local content in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

The SPDC went to court against the federal government over the action, and the case lingered for three years from the Federal High Court to the Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court, with the government winning all the way.

“Our company understandably did not make much investment in the gas gathering infrastructure in Owaza, which resulted in the poor state of the Associated Gas Gathering (AGG) machines and equipment there,” said a former Shell Executive and Gas Expert, Mr. Ogbonna Chukwueke.

Chukwueke added that getting the facilities to world-class standards so that pure, unadulterated dry gas could be supplied to the Geometric Power plant in Aba is the only obstacle delaying the take-off of the plant.

He said this  would ensure quality and uninterrupted power supply to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State.  

He said: “The NNPCL’s insistence on perfect and long-lasting work is why the technical commissioning of Aba Power has not yet taken place, though the job is practically completed,” he said.