‘Joint Venture agreement to boost Nigeria’s oil revenue by N9.15 trillion’

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that four major investments embarked upon with key upstream Joint Venture partners will provide incremental revenue to the national treasury by over $30 billion (N9.15 trillion) within the next 10 years.

Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who spoke at the inauguration of the reconstituted NNPC anti-corruption committee in Abuja yesterday, said the investments, which attracted a haul of close to $3.8 billion in foreign direct investments would serve as vehicle to fast-track the prevailing post cash-call exit era.

Baru commended the NNPC finance and technical teams for being able to attract the much-needed foreign investment at a period when it has become increasingly difficult to attract foreign credit facilities.

Besides, Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has said that the negotiation and signing of a novel agreement on a new sustainable funding framework for JV cash-call operation will be a key enabler for incremental production from our JV operations.

Kachikwu, in a statement yesterday by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, said: “The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is expected to establish and clarify the rules, procedures and institutions that will entrench good governance, accountability and transparency in the oil and gas sector. It aims to introduce new operational and fiscal terms for revenue management to enable Nigerian government retain a higher proportion of the revenue derived from operations in the petroleum industry.”