The following is a summary of the policy changes¹

• The Ministry of Energy is now scrapped and is being replaced with the National Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

• The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will now be replaced with the National Oil Company (NOC). Other oil industry bodies being restructured include

• The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) which will now be replaced with an autonomous entity called Petroleum Inspectorate Commission (PIC)

• The present Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC) will now operate as Petroleum Product Distribution Authority (PPDA).

• The National Oil and Gas Assets Holding Company (NOGAHC) will replace the present National Petroleum Investment Management Services Company (NAPIMS).

This new policy was also to addresses increasing local content, private sector participation in the gas and petrochemical sub sector, corporate social responsibility, health, safety and environmental responsibilities of all stakeholders, as well as the need to review, amend and harmonise the various laws and regulations governing the industry so as to produce an all-encompassing petroleum legislation for the nation. “The government's action follows reports published in 2000 by the Oil and Gas Industry Reform Committee and the National Council on Privatization, which proposed new operational models for the energy ministry and NNPC.” ² As part of that announcement Mr. President announce the National Energy Council which is charged with the emergency implementation of the National Oil and Gas Policy for a period not exceeding six months. The council will be chaired by the President and other members of the committee include Vice President Goodluck Jonathan (Vice Chairman), Ministers of State for Energy (Petroleum, Gas and Power), Ministers of Finance and National Planning, the Honorary Special Adviser on Energy, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and four others to be appointed by the President and a secretary.

This was a decision which we at the Nigerians for Super Energy have been calling for in our Open Letter to the President.³ We had called on Mr. President to propose 24 Refineries in a National/Publicly traded oil company with global reach similar to PDVSA and co. We also asked Mr. President to seek counsel of the architects of PDVSA, Petronas, Mr. Putin and/or Silva to see what they are doing. We are glad that Dr. Rilwanu Lukman which extensive experience with OPEC and Dr. Egbogah who has advised Petronas Malaysian Oil company which has been described as the best-managed national oil company in Asia if not the world⁴ are on the President's team.

With the appointment of Committees on Legislative Framework for Oil & Gas and Power Sector Reforms the government has put to rest some early concerns as to the legality of the new policy.

The committees have six months to deliver their recommendations. The committee will be under guidance of the National Energy Council, the committees headed by Dr. Rilwanu Lukman will undertake the serious task of reorganizing Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, and finding urgent and workable solutions to its power supply problems.

The Oil and Gas includes Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, Special Adviser to the President on Energy, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Energy, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, the Director, DPR, the Director-General, PPPRA, the Director, (Oil & Gas), BPE, Mohammed S. Barkindo, Prof Yinka Omorogbe and Mallam M.M. Ibrahim, Ms. Donu Kogbara, Engr. Sani Bello, Dr. Bunu Alibe, Dr. Bright E. Okogu, Mr. Hassan Tukur, Chief M. Olorunfemi, Mr. Ben Osuno, Mr. C.C. Nwuba, Mallam Magaji Inuwa, a representative of NUPENG and a representative of PENGASSAN. Dr. Bello Aliyu Gusau will serve as its secretary.

The power sector reform committee include the Special Adviser to the President (Power), the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Energy, the GMD, NNPC, the SSA (Power), the Director-General, BPE, the Director (Power), Federal Ministry of Energy, Engr. Bello A. Suleiman, Engr. O.C. Ogunduyile, Alhaji Abbati Ahmed, Dr. Andrew C. Uzoigwe, Alhaji Ahmed Zanna, Dr. Lanre Babalola, Engr. A.I. Nsunwara, a representative of the National Union of Electricity Employees and Mr. Aliyu Ogbori. Engr. M.U. Zauro will serve as its secretary.

We are glad the these two committee includes the petroleum, gas and power unions. We would still like to see a larger representation of the stakeholders as stated in our “Stakeholders of Nigeria's Energy Rise, A strategic redefinition of stakeholders in the Nigerian Energy sector” ⁵ We believe that if it were possible, we would recommend that all Nigerians of age be drafted to walking half days at a refinery or power generating project or other associated activities that will help us achieve our goals. Given that is not possible we settle for the next best thing is to follow the recommendations for stakeholders.
President: The leader of this emergency plan.
The Federal government and pedestals: Will provide most of the funds and direction for the plans.
The National Assembly: Make laws to easy the accomplishment of the goals and monitor the projects.
State government: Provide funds and as well as land for projects. The will also help monitor the projects.
Local governments: Same as State government, provide funds and as well as land for projects. The will also help monitor the projects. Their buy-in, support and monitor of projects can be a difference between a project completed on time and one that is very late due to community issues.
Unions: Unions would provide protection for workers as the projects are executed. As they say happy workers make excellent products.
Bankers: We provide financial support to the project. In every developed country the banks are normally called to help in financially challenging areas. In this case it is the energy sector.
Inverstors: There are two kinds of investors the shareholder and the actual management and investment team that will make the initial investment with government (Federal, State and Local) and banks to form a public/private firm that will later be trader on the stock market for shareholder to participate.
News Media: With the hopefully signing of the FOI Bill ( Freedom of Information), the news media will help in monitoring and supporting the completion of the projects.
Some of you maybe saying this is a large group. Yes it will be, but we recommend that the working team be keep small and the representatives of the subgroups be responsible for updating their groups. For example we will not want to have all the 774 local governments at the working team but have either one or two representatives from each state. However in some instances the group may have to meet to to approval important milestones. Same goes for the New Media. The shareholder can be represented by Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN).

The beauty of this approach is strength in number of owners. Truly when you look at the example of 50,000MW it looks large if only the federal government is going to lead, own and support this effort. But when you divide 50,000MW by 25 (Number of Banks) you get 2,000MW and when you divide 50,000MW by 37 (Number of States), you get 1,375MW. When you divide it by 774 (number of Local governments), you get 64.6MW and finally when you divide by 120,000 (number of shareholder in a a large Nigerian firm) you get 0.42MW. In short those are the numbers we can be looking at when it comes to investing in this effort. In other words each bank on the average can look to participate in financing a 2,000MW project ( whole or part investment).

Conclusion

We commend Mr. President for his decisions and continue to support his efforts on waking up our fatherland. Given the current structure on “ground”, the National Energy Council and Committees on Legislative Framework we recommend that Mr. President have the committee provide a solid avenue to get inputs from the rest of the stakeholders. This includes the National Assembly, State government, Local governments, Unions, Bankers, Investors, and The News Media. Mr. President cannot do this alone he needs our help and prayers.

Robot  # 1 | 09.09.2007 00:16

We com...Read the full article.

Nonyellum  # 2 | 09.09.2007 15:57

Mr. Inyang, Your enthusiasm is infectious, keep up the good work.