Following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021 by the Nigerian government to stimulate the growth of the country’s oil and gas sector, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has announced that it will officially debut in July 2022, with new roles and targets for Nigeria’s oil and gas market, as determined by the PIA.
Private sector-oriented and with a mandate to become the one of the most competitive state-owned companies in Africa, the reformed entity has placed natural gas at the forefront of the organizations growth strategy.
Mele Kyari, CEO of NNPC, announced the company’s growth targets which include plans to increase gas production capacity to 8 billion cubic feet and to become the world’s fifth largest natural gas producer. The state entity will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and advance Nigeria’s plans to leverage natural gas as a transitional energy source for energy security.
“The NNPC is geared towards providing energy security to all, and the only way to do this, is to make sure gas is the backbone of our economy,” stated Kyari, adding that, “Nigeria is a gas country, and NNPC will be that company that will make this possible. We will be the company that will guarantee energy security for this country.”
The CEO also revealed the NNPC’s plans to develop a hub in which key gas industries will be located to process natural gas into Liquefied Natural Gas, among other strategic objectives.
Meanwhile, speaking during the fifth edition of the Nigerian International Energy Summit in March 2022, Kyari stated that the NNPC was also preparing to launch an Initial Public Offer (IPO) in three years.
“We’ve worked hard to get to this point. People lost faith in the fiscal system, but we must keep working hard to deliver on our mandate. We’re ready for IPO in three years so third parties can come in. It can be state or LGAs buying into the company. You can choose to take a bit of it personally,” Kyari stated.
The NNPC was first launched in 1977 to harness the country’s oil and gas reserves for sustainable national development, whilst the PIA was implemented into law in 2021 to bring policy clarity around issues such as governance, ownership, market competitiveness and taxation, and to bring the west African country’s oil and gas market growth up to speed.
