Victor EzejaFormer Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, has expressed delight in the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), saying it is now run professionally like an efficient private sector organisation and could become a globally recognised oil and gas enterprise just like the Petrobas of Brazil and Malaysia’s Petronas.
Nnaji, who is the chairman of Geometric Power that has the Aba Power franchise, stated this during a meeting of his company’s executives with their KSE engineers and investment partners from Turkey at the Geometric Power headquarters in Aba, Abia State.
He said when NNPC changed to its new status, many thought it was a mere rebranding but today many are astonished by what the company has become.
“When the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) became the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) in July 2022, many people around the globe thought it was a mere rebranding or even a mere change of name.
“All of us are today astonished at the professionalism exhibited by the new NNPCL leaders,” Nnaji stated.
The internationally acclaimed engineering researcher who worked in the United States before relocating to Nigeria to run Geometric Power Ltd, said: “The new NNPCL is not working like a state-owned enterprise noted in Nigeria for ineffectiveness and inefficiency, but rather like professionals from Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and the rest.”
According to the former Minister of Power, “Going by what we have seen with such NNPCL member organisations as the NNPC Exploration and Production (NEPL) and the NNPC Upstream Investment and Management Service (NUIMS), the NNPCL can, with time, become a successful globally respected state-owned enterprise from the developing world like Petrobras of Brazil and Petronas of Malaysia.
“Their engineers and other technical persons at OMNL 17 are thorough, professional, and hardworking.”
“They also have personal integrity, a major issue in the Nigerian business environment,” Nnaji added.
Geometric Power Limited will receive natural gas supplies from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area, Abia State to power its 188 Megawatt power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, a distance of 27 kilometres, in a joint venture between the NNPCL and Heirs Holding Company over the operation of the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 oil field.
OMNL 17 was operated for decades by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) until three years ago when the Federal Government declined to renew its licence and handed it over to the NNPC as part of the process of technology transfer and increase of local content in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The SPDC went to court against the Federal Government over the action, and the case lingered for three years from the Federal High Court to the Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court, with the government winning all the way.
During this period, revealed Ogbonna Chukwueke, a former Shell executive and gas expert, “Our company understandably did not make much investments in the gas gathering infrastructure in Owaza which resulted in the poor state of the associated gas gathering (AGG) machines and equipment there.”
Getting the facilities to world-class standards so that ‘pure, unadulterated dry gas can be supplied to the Geometric Power plant in Aba is the only obstacle to the takeoff of the plant which will ensure quality and uninterrupted power supply to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State”, noted Chukwueke, an engineer.
“The NNPCL’s insistence on perfect and long-lasting work is why the technical commissioning of Aba Power hasn’t yet taken place, though the job is practically completed.”
Prime Business Africa gathered that Aba Power would be commissioned officially next month.
Speaking at the meeting, a member of the KSE team, Mehmmet Okay, said: “We are from Turkey, a fast developing country, so we understand the challenges Nigeria is facing now.
“We were recommended to partner with Geometric Power by General Electric of the United States, the world’s biggest electricity equipment manufacturing company because of its implicit confidence in Nnaji and his team.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
