Nigeria targets Shares Reduction in Oil JV Firms to 40%- Sylva
The Federal Government plans to gradually reduce its stakes in Oil Joint venture firms to 40 percent, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva has said.
The Minister stated this Friday in Lagos where he enumerated his Ministry’s deliverables on which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other departments and agencies under his watch should take a cue.
In a presentation at the commencement of a two-day Next Level Strategic retreat of the Minister for Directors of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Heads of Agencies under his purview, Chief Sylva listed the priority areas to include: Implementation of the reduction of Federal Government’s equity stakes in Joint Venture (JV) participation to 40 per cent; Curbing petroleum products cross border leakages, Completion of gas flare commercialisation, Increasing crude oil production to 3million barrels per day and Effecting reduction in cost of crude oil production by at least 5 per cent.
A release in Abuja by NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, explained that other priority areas Chief Sylva itemised included: Aggressive promotion of passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB); Promotion of inland basin exploration activities; Promotion of deep offshore exploration activities; Collaboration with private sector to aggressively increase domestic refining capacity and Working assiduously to support Mr. President in his poise to achieving his target of raising millions of Nigerians out of poverty via job creation.
The minister told heads of the agencies that at end of the retreat they would be required to collectively sign an undertaking to deliver on the set tasks and targets, saying they must execute the mandate with all the seriousness it deserves.
In his response, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, expressed the readiness of corporation to align the corporation with the spirit and letter behind the key priorities areas, stressing that as the main enabler of the Nigerian economy, NNPC would work with other agencies of the Ministry to make the outlined aspirations a dream come true.
He noted that the coming of Chief Sylva as the HMSPR promised to engender high level Inter agencies-collaboration across all tiers of the sector.
Similar sentiments were echoed by heads of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) among others.