The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has clarified that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has not been unbundled. He made the clarification while addressing journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.
Kachikwu noted that the corporation was only undergoing reorganisation.
He explained that the corporation has five business entities which are: the upstream, downstream, refineries, gas and power, with focus on business, noting that the entities have been there ever since.
“We did not unbundle NNPC,” Kachikwu said.
“The NNPC is still a whole, but there are companies that were not having proper stewardship.
“They are run by individuals who report to the Group Managing Director and therefore needed to be looked at.”
He said the engagement may not have been good enough, but he promised to discuss with stakeholders and resolve the issues.
He said he was concerned that the industry had been shut down, assuring reporters that the issues would be resolved soon enough.
Barely 24 hours ago, Kachikwu ha announced the creation of seven sub-divisions which the NNPC would be divided into in the coming days.
He had noted that NNPC would not be unbundled into 30 subsidiaries as reported in the media, but will rather be broken into upstream, downstream, refineries, gas and power, ventures, finance and corporate services.
The minister’s statement to the journalists was aimed at clarifying issues that had started after he was quoted in the media as saying that the NNPC would be unbundled.
In reaction, refineries have been shut down, as unions express displeasure with the purported unbundling.
The National Union Of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) had issued a statement asking their members at various refineries in the nation to down tools.
In compliance, Port Harcourt Refinery and all NNPC facilities in Rivers State have been shut down.
The unions said there were not just concerned about the purported unbundling process which lacked due process, but other labour matters that needed the attention of the Federal Government.
The House of Representatives also mandated a joint committee of the House to prevent the Minister from usurping the powers of the legislature by attempting to unbundle the NNPC without legislative approval.
The Reps in a motion, sponsored by Honourable Agom Jarigbe had told President Muhammadu Buhari that if he intends to unbundle NNPC or make any fundamental reforms in the oil and gas sector, he should send an executive bill to the National Assembly.
