NNPCL is the most transparent national oil company in Africa – Mele Kyari

• Says this is a spark of prosperity in Nigeria

• Firm getting trust of everyone including financial institutions globally

The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, told newsmen during an interactive session after a meeting with Senate Committee on finance in Abuja that the firm is the most transparent national oil company in Africa.

Nass news reported last week how an upward review of the benchmark of the form was proposed by the Chairman of the Committee, Solomon Adeola (APC – Ogun West), and was absolutely refuse by Kyari when the NNPCL management led by Kyari appeared before the panel.

The Federal Government in the Appropriation Bill had pegged average crude oil production at 1.78mbpd and crude oil price benchmark of $77.96 for the 2024 fiscal year.
The NNPCL GCEO told the Committee to stick to the benchmark proposed by the President in the 2024 Appropriation Bill,stressing that the crude oil price and production benchmarks were based on dynamics in the global oil market.
The NNPCL boss said the oil component of the budgetary projections were realistic and realisable despite the fact that the country currently produces average of 1.5million barrels of oil per day.
He said: “On the question around whether we adjust the oil production benchmark from 1.78mbpd to 1.8million, I still advise that we stay with the submissions by Mr. President.
“There is no way we will get crude oil for less than $70. Once economies are growing, there will be sustained demands for crude oil in our country and other countries.
“The estimates supplied by Mr. President are realistic. When we say production, we mean total production of crude oil and condensates.
“So we combine condensates and crude oil as total marginal production. So we know our estimates are realistic. There is no curtailment on condensates from OPEC.”
However, Kyari also mentioned on Tuesday how the firm is getting the support of all stakeholders particularly the National Assembly to support them in all their processes around the crude oil theft and other infractions.

His words:”We spoke very fast, but we want you to people, if one can take something from this discussion with the senators, what is that thing that you have seen very important? Yeah, First of all, we are happy to attend and respond to the Senate. Our company is the creation of the National Assembly. We are paying our taxes, we are paying our royalties, we are delivering dividend to Nigerians.

In this year alone up to October, we are able to deliver up to 4.5 trillion naira of revenue to the Federation. And this company is changing. Perhaps this is the most transparent national oil company in Africa and the reason is very simple because it is the requirement of the law and it is also the conviction of the company that to become transparent to your shareholders is the right thing to do. And the the end effect is that you know we are delivering value and also working and getting the support of all stakeholders particularly the National Assembly to supporting us in all our processes around crude oil theft and other associated infractions. And we are seeing result, but more than anything else, you know we need the support for this company it is coming from the executive arm, particularly Mr. President, to making sure that we deliver value to this country. We make sure that we engage and we deliver gas into our domestic market. This is very critical to national development. Prosperity for this country will depend on our ability to deliver power, deliver gas based industry into this country. And we have seen the focus, we have seen the trajectory. We are getting the trust of everyone including the financial institutions globally. They are lending to also make sure that we can do business. But I think we have never had the better situation that we do have today. This country is stabilizing, the macroeconomic indices are changing and we are also seeing stability in the FPS market. Yes, people do see the high value of the dollar. But what is important is that within the next quarter, that i believe very strongly that the gap between the import window and that of the parallel market will close. And that is the spark of prosperity in our country and when on a threshold of history and this country will prosper. Thank you.