Senate committee lauds NNPC for engendering competitiveness

The Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) has commended the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) for repositioning the Nigerian oil and gas industry into a competitive business environment.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Bassey Akpan, gave the commendation when he led its members on an oversight visit to the NNPC Towers in Abuja.

Akpan, according to a statement by Garba Muhammad, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, on Wednesday, also pledged support for frontier exploration.

He said the visit offered the lawmakers the opportunity to have first-hand information about Management’s actions in transitioning from a Corporation into a limited liability company.

The transition is in compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

“We commend the effort of Malam Mele Kyari and his team towards repositioning NNPC post-PIA.”

“We’ve been told about the challenges, the expectations, projections and visions for NNPC. We are very impressed that the effort of the National Assembly in passing the PIA is yielding positive outcomes,” Akpan said.

He said the Committee would look into the issue of funding for frontier exploration in order to ensure that the objective of boosting exploration and production in frontier basins in the next five years was met.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Ltd, Malam Mele Kyari, informed the lawmakers that the company was well primed to meet the growth trajectory envisaged in the PIA.

Kyari noted that it had received very positive commercial assurances from investors and partners across the globe.