PIB: NNPC to be commercialised, not scrapped – FG

Fears of staffers of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), over alleged plan of scrapping the oil outfit in the wake of passing into law, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), were doused Monday by the Minister of State for Petroleum , Mr Timipre Sylva .

While fielding questions from journalists at the Senate wing of the National Assembly after an interactive session with the leadership of the federal parliament said, the bill seeks for commercialisation and not scrapping of NNPC.

“We have heard so much noise about NNPC being scrapped, but that is not envisaged by the Bill at all.

“NNPC will not be scrapped but commercialised in line with deregulation move being made across all the streams in the sector comprising of upstream, downstream and midstream .

“We have said that NNPC will be commercialized. But If you are talking about transforming the industry, the only new thing that we are introducing is the development of the midstream, that is the pipeline sector – that sector between the upstream and the downstream which because the framework was not there has not really developed very well.

“So we have provided robustly for the growth of the midstream sector.

“Through commercialisation, the required competitiveness in the sector, will be achieved ” , he said.

He added that the host communities will also have the best deal from the bill.

According to him, through the PIB the industry will be transformed and the PEF and the PPPRA will not exist in the same form that they exist today.

“But I don’t want to go into the details of the Bill until it is read on the floor of the Senate”, he said.