Despite being listed as one of the nine unprofitable subsidiaries in 2016, the Group Managing Director of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maiaknti Baru, said on Tuesday the two downstream subsidiaries of the corporation fared well.
The two subsidiaries consist of the Nigerian Products Marketing Company, NPMC, and the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company, NPSC, of the corporation.
The NPMC is the marketing arm of the company, while the NPSC is in charge of the storage and distribution of petroleum products.
A review of the NNPC 2016 Annual Report by BudgIT, a civic organization, recently rated the PPMC’s performance as “unremarkable.”
The two subsidiaries were split from PPMC, which the report said showed “an inconsistent financial performance throughout the year.”
But, speaking at the end of the 24th, 25th and 26th Annual General Meeting, AGM, of the two downstream subsidiaries, in Abuja, Mr. Baru said despite the challenges in the downstream petroleum sector, the two companies had fared well.
“The two companies fared well given the circumstances they found themselves,” the NNPC GMD said. “Amidst upheavals in products pricing and the intrigues among players in the industry, they had ensured an unimpeded petroleum products supply into the market.
“The NPMC and NPSC are the sole vehicles through which the NNPC is currently satisfying its obligation as the supplier of last resort to the nation. We have ensured that we sustain the steady supply of petroleum products across the country. We are doing this onerous task with integrity.”
Mr. Baru said the NNPC had resolved it would leave no stone unturned to continue to guarantee adequate supply of petroleum products to all parts of the country.
He said the decision to split the PPMC into NPMC and NPSC was to commercialize the operations of the company for the better.
The strategies adopted by the Federal Government and the NNPC to engage members of various host communities to stem incidences of pipeline infractions were yielding positive results.
During the meeting, the first to be held in a long while, the companies’ external auditors, PricewaterHouseCoopers and others, issued a clean bill of health, stressing that their financial statement and operations complied with international best practices.
The profit and loss account of the companies were not available at the time of reporting.
Spokesperson of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said recent strategic intervention by NNPC resulted in a 42 percent fall in the price of automotive gas oil, AGO, popularly called diesel.
He said the NNPC had also taken steps to resuscitate some of its critical pipelines and depots, including Atlas Cove-Mosimi Depot pipeline, Port Harcourt Refinery, Aba Depot pipeline, Kaduna–Kano pipeline and the Kano Depot to enhance the efficiency in diesel distribution.
Other efforts to maintain uninterrupted supply of petroleum products across the country, Mr. Ughamadu said, included the ongoing revamp and re-commissioning of critical pipelines and depots across the country.
Another area of intervention to enhance supply and distribution of diesel, he said, was regular engagement with critical downstream stakeholders, namely the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD and Independent Petroleum Marketers, IPMAN.
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