NNPC’s Strategy to Dominate Oil And Gas Exports in Africa – Bala Wunti

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has developed a three-phased corporate strategy to expand and become the dominant state oil firm in the oil and gas market within the African continent before the year 2021.

This was revealed by the Corporation’s Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, Mr. Bala Wunti,

Wunti disclosed that by 2021, the Corporation’s strategy would have come full cycle, at which time it would have expanded its business footprints beyond the shores of Nigeria first as a net exporter of refined petroleum products, and then a hub for other hydrocarbon businesses.

The NNPC Chief Corporate Strategist explained in the latest edition of the quarterly in-house publication of the NNPC under the cover story From Gas to Greatness, that by this time, NNPC would have ramped up its domestic refining capacity to about 650, 000 barrels per day (bd) up by about 205,000bd..

said in the publication that the corporation adopted a survival phase which would last until 2018; a consolidation phase – expected to kick in 2019; and then a long-term phase – taking off and becoming full-fledged by 2021, as the three-phased corporate strategy it was pursuing.

“While our strategy department is in charge of strategy development and business model formulation, our Corporate Planning Department (CPD) is in charge of our planning and budgeting process. Key performance indicators are established to monitor performance and ensure our business plans achieve the desired strategic objectives,” said Wunti in the magazine which focused on gas in the edition.

According to him, the corporate strategy for the NNPC was in three phases of short term survival phase; midterm consolidation phase and long-term growth phase respectively.

He said the survival phase was in 2018 where the corporation’s primary focus was to ensure the corporation stayed afloat by keeping its cost well under control below its revenues.

“Under this stage we have to seek to resolve protracted legal and commercial stalemates hindering us from taking major investment decisions that have long term growth implications. This includes, resolving Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) arbitrations; Escravos Gas-to-Liquids (EGTL) project disputes as well as taking Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on critical upstream projects,” he stated.

The second phase, Wunti added: “involves midterm consolidation phase where the corporation would be seeking to achieve major milestones most of which align with national aspirations as enshrined in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).”

This step, he explained included achieving three million barrels per day (mbd) average oil production, 45 billion reserves, Incorporated Joint Venture (IJV) implementation, Seven Critical Gas Development Plan (7CGDP), five billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas to domestic market and growing NNPC refining capacity to about 650, 000 barrels per day (bd).

“In the long term, post, 2021, we see NNPC achieving long term growth by expanding its footprints beyond the shores of the country, becoming a net exporter of products and dominating the West African region,” the corporation’s chief strategist.