Nigeria oil minister lists 5 major agenda, including reducing government shares in JV firms

Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources on Friday outlined a five-pronged agenda, which includes the reduction of government stakes in its joint venture (JV) partnerships with international oil companies.

Sylva said the implementation of the reduction plan would see the federal government of Nigeria cut its equity stakes in JV participation to forty percent (40%).

The five-pronged priority areas are what the minister considers to be the priority of the ministry and on which it is expected to deliver with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other departments and agencies under his watch.

The minister told directors in the ministry and heads of agencies under his control in a presentation at the opening of a two-day gathering tagged “Next Level Strategic Retreat” that other areas of priority on the agenda are curbing petroleum products cross border leakages; completion of gas flare commercialisation; increasing crude oil
production to three million barrels per day; and effecting reduction in cost of crude oil production by at least five percent.

In statement made available to business a.m. and signed by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s group general manager, group public affairs division, Sylva is said to have listed other pursuits of his ministry to include, aggressive promotion of passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB); promotion of inland basin exploration activities; promotion of deep
offshore exploration activities; collaboration with private sector to aggressively increase domestic refining capacity and working assiduously to support President Muhammadu Buhari to achieve his target of raising millions of Nigerians out of poverty via job creation.

According to Ughamadu, the minister told heads of the agencies that at end of the retreat they would be required to collectively sign an undertaking to deliver on the set tasks and targets, saying they must execute the mandate with all the seriousness it deserves.

Ughamadu said Mele Kyari, group managing director, NNPC, while responding to the Sylva’s charge, expressed the readiness of the corporation to align with the spirit and letter behind the key priorities areas, stressing that as the main enabler of the Nigerian economy, NNPC would work with other agencies of the ministry to make the outlined aspirations a dream come true.

Kyari is referenced as noting that the coming of Sylva as minister of state for petroleum resources, promises to engender high level inter agencies-collaboration across all tiers of the sector.

Ughamadu said similar sentiments were echoed by heads of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agncy (PPPRA), among others.