The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Tuesday said it is not getting payments for the supply of gas and power.
It said it was one of the reasons why energy was not readily available and affordable to many citizens.
NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, who disclosed this during the ongoing Nigeria Oil Gas conference in Abuja, stated that the non-payment for these supplies was affecting the oil firm adversely.
Explaining why energy was not available and affordable in Nigeria, Kyari said one of the reasons was because investors could not get financing for energy projects due to the non-payment for supplies.
He said, “There are many issues that affect affordability for everybody and this is because you can’t even afford financing. I think that is the part that people don’t look at, you can’t even afford financing for it (energy).
“Nobody is going to give you money for a project that you are not going to get back your money. That is what it is. Today, NNPC is exposed to all of you (operators). Not just to the government. We supply gas, we don’t get payment for it. We supply power, we don’t get payment for it.
“So you can’t run any business this way. It cannot be sustainable. It can’t create affordable energy and it (energy) will not be available. So these are multiple issues that are for all of us.”
He, however, noted that the NNPCL was changing, as it was now being regulated and mandated to pay tax, royalties and dividend to shareholders, as a competitor in the oil sector.
“By the way, you are also aware that we are going Initial Public Offering very soon. We will sell part of our equity. It is in the law. And once that happens, we will not be any different from anybody (private sector operators).”
Kyari said NNPC and its joint venture partners were producing over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil, adding that the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 had currently transferred all gas infrastructure assets to NNPC and the company would run it as a business.
“We are not going to ask for money from government to run this.
We can borrow or use our cash flow to do it,” the oil firm’s boss stated.
