The Senate has said it will invite the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over the lack of funds to explore and develop new frontier acreages.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Jarigbe Jarigbe, made this known on Friday while briefing journalists after a closed-door session with the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, and his team.
“We received briefing from the CEO of NUPRC and his team on the activities of the agency. Section 9 subsections 4 and 5 provide that the NUPRC should have a Frontier Acreages Escrow Account for the exploration and development of frontier acreages and that fund is subject to the approval of the National Assembly.
“Also, Section 22(1) of the Petroleum Industrial Act also provides that the National Assembly has oversight of the budget and expenditure of the NUPRC.
“So, we had to interact with the commission on those issues and we discovered that there is no fund raised from 30 per cent oil profit and 30 per cent gas profit as provided for in Section 9(4) of the PIA. We also intend to engage with the NNPCL on that. We don’t know the budget because we weren’t given any figures. We will get the details of that and get back” he said.
The Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 introduced the Frontier Exploration Fund to support exploration and development in Nigeria’s frontier acreages.
These acreages are located in areas such as Anambra, Dahomey, Bida, Sokoto, Chad, and Benue, where hydrocarbon exploration has yet to occur or remains undeveloped.
The PIA states that the Fund, which constitutes 30% of the NNPCL’s “profit oil and profit gas” from various contracts, will finance exploration and development activities in the frontier acreages.
The NUPRC CEO noted that gas, like oil, is crucial to revenue generation. He added that Nigeria’s 208 trillion cubic feet of gas has positioned it as having the largest reserve in Africa and ninth globally.
He noted that Nigeria is gradually gaining strength in its gas production and that efforts are being made to ensure that production translates to increased revenue.
