The second phase of the transformation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was formally flagged off with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, charging the management of NNPC to ensure that the agenda does not fail.

Dr Lukman gave the charge in a keynote address he delivered at a Town Hall Meeting of the management and staff at the Corporate Headquarters of NNPC to formally unveil the 12-point transitional transformation agenda that will guide the operations of the corporation in the next 18 months.

“We cannot allow this transformation to fail because the transformation of NNPC is the linchpin of the PIB. Without NNPC’s transformation, the visions and aspirations behind the PIB will remain a theoretical construct. More broadly, without NNPC’s transformation, there can be no energy sector reform,” he declared.

The Minister also pledged his support for the transformation project and hailed the NNPC for being “ahead of the curve in thinking through the implications of the PIB and putting in place the building blocks under the new regulatory regime.”

Dr Lukman, however warned that the formal launch of the second phase of the transformation which came complete with a roadmap and timeline was only the beginning of the journey.

He urged the management and staff of NNPC to be prepared for a rough ride as huge transformation projects like the type being undertaken by the NNPC required tough decisions to be made. He also urged them to work together as a team.

Presenting the 12-point agenda to the forum, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Dr Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo outlined a number of reasons why the transformation of the corporation has become imperative.

Dr. Barkindo said NNPC has not been able to live up to public expectations with regards to production and supply of petroleum products because the current structure does not allow its top managers to spend quality time on the core business of the corporation.

“A recent survey carried out revealed that our top management staff spend less than one-third of their time attending to their core management duties and the core business of the corporation. This is because we are functioning as an appendage of government and so we are often called upon to attend to political matters that are outside our core functions. That is the situation we find ourselves, and this is not a sustainable way of running any business,” he said.

Barkindo expressed the commitment of all the Group Executive Directors of the Corporation to the full implementation of the 12-point agenda which include monetization of non-core assets, identification of capitalization needs and identifying financing options, resizing key functions to target levels and restructuring of the Corporate Headquarters as a holding company, define legal set-up and autonomy for subsidiaries and optimize group-wide procurement capabilities.

Other items on the agenda aimed at transforming NNPC into a performance-based organization include defining clear roles and accountabilities and fortifying merit-based HR evaluation; institutionalizing the 100-day plans and monitoring delivery through the transformation office; execution of organic and inorganic growth plan; optimizing supply chain and delivery of capital projects to support turnaround; developing investment initiatives and the right-sizing of the organization; defining IJV models to consider and negotiating transition to IJVs; and developing and executing retail growth plan with a view to consolidating crude and oil products trading into a Supply and Trading Company.

The GMD said the implementation of these agenda would get the NNPC on the path of transformation to a fully commercialized and profit-focused organization that would no longer be an onlooker but a committed participant in every sphere of the oil and gas business across the West African sub-region.

The high point of the occasion was the unveiling of the 12-point agenda by the Minister of Petroleum resources, Dr Rilwanu Lukman who was ably supported by the Minister of Finance, Dr Mansur Mukhtar, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr Tanimu Yakubu.

The Minister of Finance also pledged the support of the Federal Government as well as that of his ministry to the NNPC transformation project.