April 16, (THEWILL) – There is either a seeming lack of understanding or sheer mischief by a section of the media on the operations of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), over the past few days.
Oil and gas entities across the globe operate with partnerships, subsidiaries and Joint Ventures. Saudi ARAMCO for instance, has over eight subsidiaries; Aramco Americas, Aramco Shared Benefits Company (ASBCO), Saudi Petroleum International, Inc. (SPII), Saudi Refining, Inc. (SRI), Aramco Training Services Company (ATSC) and Motiva Enterprises LLC, which owns and operates North America’s largest refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, with a crude capacity of more than 600,000 barrels a day. The company also operates the country’s largest base oil plant and a network of 25 distribution terminals that support delivery of gasoline and diesel to more than 5,200 retail outlets under the Shell and 76 brands.
Just like Saudi Aramco, the NNPCL has 8 functional joint ventures and partnerships with Sahara Group that predates Mele Kyari, as GMD of the defunct NNPC and now NNPCL.
Owing to the sensitive nature of the NNPCL operations and as a global brand, there are situations of urgency and security warranting the company to maintain aircraft charter service of which an affiliate of Sahara Group operates. The charter service has never being shrouded in secrecy, therefore, for a discredited news outlet to suggest anything to the contrary fits into the hire-for-writing history of such an outlet.
As far back as 2011, and for strategic operations reasons, the NNPC reduced its stake in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project to 30 percent, from 49 percent, to secure much-needed investment. At that time, the NNPC offered 4 percent of its stake to LNG Japan, which is jointly owned by trading firms Sumitomo and Sojitz; 3 percent to Itochu, and a further 2 percent to a joint venture between Sahara Energy and U.S.-based Sempra Energy.
In keeping to the tradition of excellence owing to verifiable deliverables of the partnerships and JVs. The NNPC through one of its JVCs, West Africa Gas Ltd (WAGL), Sahara Energy unveiled two LPG vessels in Ulsan, South Korea in 2017 and have executed other JVs on OML 18, Operator of a PSC block, FTSA partner for OML 11.
Also, both companies own some assets as Production Sharing Contract specifically on OmL 284, 286, and 18, 148 as well as 228.
A tainted story cannot undermine the fact that Sahara Energy is in over 27 countries, with 16 in Africa, and has an integrated value chain where they have crude assets, refineries and storage and distribution expertise.
In 2022, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Sahara Group Joint Venture, took delivery of two 23,000 CBM Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) vessels at the Hyundai MIPO Shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.
The new vessels — MT BARUMK and MT SAPET, increased the NNPC and Sahara Group’s investment to over $300 million, approaching the JV’s $1 billion gas infrastructure commitment by 2026.
The vessels are part of the federal government’s commitment to the domestication of gas in Nigeria through several initiatives and increasing seamless supply under the LPG Penetration Framework and LPG Expansion Plan.
Both groups have further through the West Africa Gas Limited (WAGL), reiterated their commitment to develop and construct jetties across West African countries to boost Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply and penetration as part of several efforts to take advantage of opportunities in the energy transition space.
The partnership has seen immense transformation of Africa’s largest thermal plant, Egbin Power Plc and has as one of its entities the Ikeja Electric (one of the largest private distribution companies in sub-Saharan Africa) and First Independent Power Limited (FIPL).
The President Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is also not in a hurry to ‘sack’ political office holders, neither is he running against deadline to change the leadership of NNPC Limited that is tenure based governed by CAMA law and will most likely abide by as one of the pillars of democracy governed by law, with him as a follower of same law.
It is apparent that the media can do better by fact-checking and not yield to some amorphous “source” just to gain traction with fake news.
***Fejiro Oliver is Managing Editor of Secret Reporters*
