The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is
seeking about $15bn to develop a gas industrial
park patterned after the Xenel Petrochemical
Plant in Saudi Arabia and the Nagarjuna
Fertilizer Plant in India.
The top management of the corporation led by
the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power,
Dr. David Ige, said during a presentation to the
Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal
Commission in Abuja on Tuesday that NNPC was
counting on the Federation Account as a
veritable source of funding for the project.
The Head of Public Relations, RMAFC, Mr.
Ibrahim Mohammed, confirmed the meeting in a
statement made available to our correspondent
in Abuja.
The NNPC delegation also identified state
governments and local governments across the
country as veritable sources of funding for the
multibillion naira project.
Ige explained the NNPC Gas Master Plan Policy
Intervention across the entire value chain of
production, processing and marketing, and
urged RMAFC to drum support for the project.
According to the statement, the NNPC director
stressed that corporation was desirous of
developing a multi-billion dollar gas-based
industrial park fashioned after Xenel and
Nagarjuna.
He said the facility was estimated to gulp
between $15bn and $20bn in anticipated
investment with additional investments in
infrastructure and utilities to be provided by a
special purpose vehicle constituted from willing
investors and the Federal Government.
The NNPC official said when completed, the
project would stimulate a geographically
dispersed industrialisation of Nigeria and
unprecedented job creations estimated at over
five million jobs across the entire value chain in
the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-
sectors.
To ensure the successful take off and completion
of the gigantic project, Ige called on RMAFC to
join NNPC in sensitising critical stakeholders,
especially the three tiers of government, so as to
attract massive investment to the sector.
Speaking at the meeting, the Chairman, RMAFC,
Mr. Elias Mbam, said it was necessary for state
governments, especially those in the Niger Delta
area, to invest in gas infrastructure to harness
the full potential of Nigeria’s natural gas
resources.
Mbam observed that given the huge natural gas
endowment in the Niger Delta, state
governments in the region could exploit their
comparative advantage in domestic gas
production by forging closer economic ties and
jointly investing in the provision of gas
infrastructure for enhanced revenue generation.
Meanwhile, the corporation has said the team
set up by the House of Representatives
Committee on Finance and the Office of the
Accountant-General of the Federation to look
into its did not finish its task before announcing
that it owed the government N142.7bn.
The General Manager, Media Relations
Department, Group Public Affairs Division,
NNPC, Mr. Farouk Ibrahim, said the corporation
appeared before the committee headed by Mr.
Abdulmumin Jibrin early last month to clarify its
position on the issues.
Jibrin spoke on behalf of the Group Managing
Director, Mr. Andrew Yakubu.
The House of Representatives had on Monday
declared that the corporation was indebted to
the Federal Government to the tune of
N142.7bn.
Jibrin said, “The management of NNPC notes
with regret the statements credited to the
chairman of the committee to the effect that the
corporation owes the Federal Government the
sum of N142.7bn in unremitted internally
generated fund meant to be paid into the
Federal Consolidated Account in keeping with
the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“Our position is that the team had not completed
its assignment for reasons we will explain
shortly.”
He said NNPC could not be expected to sweep
funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund since
the law specifically said it was surplus that
should be paid.
“In a situation where due to no fault of ours, we
operate at a loss, there would not be any surplus
to pay,” he added.
The NNPC spokesman said the corporation had
continued over the years to provide to the
Federation Account about N400bn monthly from
its upstream operations.
He further explained that after scheduling series
of meetings, the team could not meet with the
corporation, not until a review meeting was
scheduled for Thursday, March 7, 2013.
Punchng.com
