• Engages firm to audit SAA agreement with Atlantic Energy, $2.46bn to be recovered
A preliminary report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has shown that $1 billion in foreign exchange will be saved from fuel import substitution when local refineries commence full production.
The president’s media aide, Mr. Garba Shehu, yesterday confirmed the submission of the report to the president.
In the report, the NNPC said the nation’s refineries were likely to achieve full production by the end of the year.
According to the NNPC boss, progress was being made towards bringing back the nation’s refineries to full production, noting that the management of the NNPC was working to ensure that this happens before the end of this year.
When completed, the report said it was expected to achieve an annual savings of about $1billion in foreign exchange from fuel import substitution.
He also said additional total savings of over $500 million annually would be made from the petrochemical products of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company.
The report also disclosed that efforts at repositioning the NNPC had started yielding results for the nation’s economy.
Kachikwu also said that the corporation had begun the process of recovering over $7 billion in over-deducted tax benefits from joint-venture partners on major capital projects.
The report, which detailed efforts by the new management of the NNPC at recovering debts owed the group, stated that performance measurement and benchmarking as well as value for money reviews of NNPC and the JV companies covering the period 2008 to 2013 had commenced.
In addition, the report said that a reputable international accounting firm had been engaged by the NNPC to ascertain the exact amount due government on the Strategic Alliance Contracts entered by its exploration and production subsidiary, Nigerian Production Development Company (NPDC) and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, where up to $2.46 billion of government money would be recovered.
It also revealed that consequent upon an extensive investigation of the various toxic crude oil-for-refined products swap contracts, a total sum of $420 million had so far been reconciled in favour of NNPC and was now due for recovery from the legacy OPA/SWAP contracts.
Of the reconciled amount, the sum of $277 million had been recovered in lieu of products and the recovery effort was still ongoing, the report added.
According to the report, the GMD of NNPC was committed to the review of all existing contracts and addressing the ones that were not favourable to the corporation.
It was noted that significant cost reductions were also expected to ensure the corporation remained profitable in the prevailing low crude oil price regime.
The report stated that gas supply to the power plants that had hitherto been handicapped by the supply of much-needed gas, had improved significantly from about 630 to 861 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d), resulting in improved power supply witnessed in the country.
It further revealed that gas supply for power and peak electricity generation had in recent times reached a historical high of 876mmscf/d and 4,782MW respectively.
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