ZIK GBEMRE BECKONS ON TINUBU, NNPCL, TO LEAVE UTOROGU GAS PLANT OF OML 34 FOR ND WESTERN LTD TO OPERATE 

Everyday we hear of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wooing investors to Nigeria by hopping from country to country to justify his frequent foreign trips.

Few days ago Vice President Shettima attended a business summit in Sweden with the slogan of wooing investors. Yet when investors set up businesses in Nigeria they face a lot of bottlenecks from government parastatals and industry regulators frustrating them.

A notable case is the oil & gas sector fast collapsing due to interference by redundant NNPCL and NEPL who are overzealously taking over all divested oil & gas assets in the Niger-Delta.

What has government got to do with management and operations of businesses? We are hearing NNPCL and NEPL have taken over operations of OML 34 (UTOROGU GAS PLANT).

NNPCL and NEPL should handoff the operations and allow private Nigerian companies who bought the Shell interests to manage and operate the entire OML 34 Asset in Delta.

There is no government enterprise that is functioning in Nigeria. Why do the government play politics with management of business? NNPCL and NEPL that have no capacity to manage and operate UTOROGU GAS Plant in OML 34.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan and Diezani Alison-Madueke started all of this nonsense when they brought in NPDC now known as NEPL to operate all these Shell divested assets for their selfish interests. NEPL and NNPCL should stay off the assets completely.

They shouldn’t come in with pretense of ASSET MANAGEMENT TEAM (AMT). NNPCL and NEPL should remain as regulators. Bringing NNPCL and NEPL in for the operation of Upstream Assets is dangerous.

They destroyed the refineries and now they are coming through the back door of AMT to destroy OML 34 asset.

Return OML 34 (Utorogu Gas Plant) in Delta State to ND WESTERN Ltd to operate solely. Allow the companies that bought Shell interests to operate the Assets. It is not the business of government to operate businesses.

The private sector drives businesses all over the world. It is business of government to regulate and guide business policies and not to take active in day to day operations.

As President Tinubu travels all over the world to look for investors, is he looking for investors to operate their businesses? The government should not have a hand in running business in this 21st century.

NNPCL/NEPL should remain regulators and mind their business in OML 65 only and not to be running and operating other oil & gas assets as it were when Shell was operating most of these assets in Niger Delta.

This is how businesses are run in the advanced countries like US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, etc.

NNPCL and NEPL should stop disrupting smooth running of the upstream industry with unnecessary oil & gas politics. Allow investors to run and operate businesses. The involvement of NNPCL and NEPL in running and operating assets will ground the oil & gas upstream sector, just as they willfully grounded Refineries and forced Nigeria into importing fuels instead of exporting refined products to other countries.

If they want their children to work in oil sector let them apply for jobs in the private oil companies rather than playing politics of running aground the oil & gas upstream sector.

NNPCL/NEPL have no capacity to operate and manage the upstream sector. It doesn’t make any economic sense if you bring in investors to invest in Nigeria and at the same time NNPCL and NEPL will prevent them from running and managing their oil & gas businesses in the country.

What is the essence of looking for investors? You mean you want the investors to invest their money without having the power to manage and operate the Assets?

Leave Utorogu Gas Plant for ND Western Ltd to operate. When it was established, Shell, not NNPC, was the operating partner till the Royal Dutch Shell sold its stakes to ND Western Ltd. Nothing should be different now.

ND Western Ltd should operate the OML 34 Asset solely without interference of NNPCL & NEPL under the guise of Asset Management Team (AMT). No one has asked me to push for this request please.

We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes