NNPC debunks reports of feud between Petroleum Minister, GMD

ABUJA—The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has said that there was no rift between the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke and its Group Managing Director, GMD, Engr. Andrew Yakubu. In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the Group General Manager, GGM, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said that the two were “in harmonious working relationship.” Mr. Alegbe also said that the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC, in the last few months, have heeded countless number of summons from the National Assembly, wondering why the media would go to town with the reports that the Petroleum Minister was doing everything to thwart the proposed investigation into the alleged N10 billion purportedly expended on the charter of jets by the corporation. He said: “The Minister and NNPC are putting together all the documents that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account had requested for. At the end of the probe, the Minister and the Corporation would be vindicated.” Alegbe said that the GMD of the corporation was in London last week for the board meeting of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, and that NNPC would remain focused on its core mandate of guaranteeing energy sufficiency for the country. On measures against fuel scarcity He said that new measures were being adapted to ensure round the clock availability of petrol. Under the arrangement, he said, the Minister had approved the allocation of 1,854,314 metric tonnes of petrol as supplementary volumes for the first and second quarters of the year. He noted that whilst the first quarter supplementary volume was designed to complement the earlier allocation in addition to covering any under-delivery by marketers due to unforeseen financial challenges, the second quarter (June only) quota was in consonance with the national consumption pattern of 40 million litres per day. The NNPC spokesman also noted that the second quarter quota also captured a 23 percent upper tolerance in the event of default or slippage into July. He said: “There are 27 oil marketing companies with proven performance records enlisted in respect of first quarter deliveries. For the second (June only), there are 40 marketers with good performance records and whose facilities are functional. “The idea of June only is to revert back to the normal quarterly sequence. That is July to September and October to December.”