Mele Kyari, group managing
director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it is very
difficult to make fuel available at N145 per litre.
He made this known while speaking
on Wednesday during a courtesy visit to Ahmed Lawan, the senate president, at
the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
According to Kyari, the cheap
price of petrol encourages smuggling.
“The N145 per litre fuel price
regime in Nigeria runs against the N350 per litre most of the other West
African countries operate, encouraging smuggling,” he said.
“It is even very difficult for us
to make the product available at N145.”
The GMD, who was accompanied by
Maikanti Baru, his predecessor, said the corporation would work closely with
the national assembly to ensure quick passage of the bills that would encourage
the growth of the oil and gas sector.
In his submissions, Baru said the
visit was meant to canvass the senate’s support for the quick passage of the
Deep Offshore Amendment Bill which has the potential of boosting federal
government’s revenue by about $5 billion per annum.
Shedding light on the
significance of the bill, he explained that the nation had been virtually losing
revenue running into billions of dollars due to delay in the review of the
extant Deep Offshore Act which stipulates that the fiscal terms could be
reviewed when the price of crude oil had surpassed the $20 barrel mark and
production had gone on in those acreages consistently for 15 years.
He said the amendment bill
proposes to raise the royalty paid on deep offshore production in order to
ensure a higher revenue take for government, adding that no operator could
oppose such a move as it was fair going by current market realities.
Kayode Fayemi, chairman of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum, has also described the payment of subsidy as a ‘drain
on resources‘.
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