It was hard criticism on Thursday, when Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari appeared alongside his management team to present the organistaion’s budget before a joint committee of the House of Representatives.
The GMD had after a background remark on the performance and challenges being faced by the Corporation, asked a subordinate to give insights into the 2020 budget performance.
Members of the joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), and Gas Resources however raised issues with the content of the document to the effect that a lot of provisions were rendered in percentages, without details of the monetary allocations.
Nicholas Osai, who first raised issues argued that a whopping figure of N66.6 billion was reportedly spent on “rehabilitation of refineries”, “and you don’t deem it fit for this honorable House to know the status of the refineries. We need the minutest of all details before we can engage the GMD”, he said and demanded that the session be put off so that members can study the budget.
Similarly, Ali Wudil also drew attention of the NNPC to a budget of Pipeline security and maintenance, without details, as well as the allocation of about three billion naira for “renewable energy”, and demanded to know what the Corporation intended to achieve.
Some other members who spoke insisted that NNPC be excused to go and repackage the document, and provide explanations to several of the technical abbreviations inherent, in addition to all details of expenditures.
Responding however, Kyari explained that all details of whatever the lawmakers were asking for were available and shall be provided to the committee.
“We will clarify everything so that you see exactly what you want to see”, he stated, adding that the concerns over cost of securing the pipelines may be understandable, but that “you need to maintain a high architecture of security to keep the over 5,500 kilometer pipelines from Lagos to Escravos, which is not necessary in a sane society.”
On why NNPC was still investing hugely in rehabilitating the moribund refineries, the GMD explained that they were deliberately shut down to allow an effective fixing, which he said had gone very far, adding that the shut down was necessary because about 220,000 barrels of crude was required to feed the Kaduna and Warri refineries daily, a quantity he said was not deliverable with the current available channels, making production running at losses.
Chairman of the joint panel, Musa Sarki Adar in his welcome remarks earlier, commended the GMD for the first time since the return of democracy, presenting the budget of NNPC before the parliament.
