Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state
for petroleum resources, says the federal government has generated over $2
billion from the renewal of oil block licences.
The former group managing
director the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said the funds will
be used to implement the nation’s budget.
“We have actually asked for early
renewals, because we needed to get money out of it to help finance the budget
and from that process, we have actually gotten about $2 billion,” Kachikwu told
TheGuardian.
The minister said his ministry
deliberately put a policy in place to hasten renewals, so enough funds could be
put together for the budget.
“I put a policy of early renewals
in place so that even blocks that are not due for renewal before 2019 are being
renewed right now,” he said.
According to him, only about 30
of the fields, expected to add an about 300 million barrels of crude were
granted licenses by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
Kachikwu added that about 40
others, as well as mega fields suggested to President Muhammadu Buhari, who
doubles as the minister of petroleum, were awaiting approval.
He said the ministry is currently
analysing the renewal applications lodge for the 2019 process, to ensure best
use of Nigeria’s oil field.
“We are doing analysis on what
these people can bring to bear on the time limit between which you must develop
the block that you asked for,” he added.
“If you can’t, lets somebody else
get into it, and try and create a joint venture to find funding. But just
holding to a block is depriving the government, state and even the investor
money and it does not make any sense.”
The minister of petroleum, who is
the president, has discretionary powers to allocate oil blocks in Nigeria —
without the scrutiny of any other government ministry, department, or agency.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com