The Federal Government yesterday wound up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, after 46 years of operation and in its place, the Petroleum Industry Act enabled Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, took over as the nation’s oil company.

NNPCL was set up in 2021 in line with the Corporate Affairs Commission’s companies registration rules following the enactment of the PIA.

Speaking at an event to officially mark the end of NNPC in Abuja, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva said with the reforms introduced by the Federal Government, NNPCL is expected to be a competitive and commercially oriented company.

Chief Sylva explained that the reforms are expected to make the Nigerian oil and gas industry attractive to investors both locally and foreign. According to him the PIA empowered NNPC Limited to operate like every private company in Nigeria with exemption from the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Public Procurement Act and TSA in order to ensure there are no excuses for failure and in return for this empowerment the PIA expects a strong commercially oriented National Energy company with an obligation to operate profitably and deliver dividends to shareholders.

Speaking earlier, the Group Chief Executive, of NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari noted that the new company with over $60 billion in assets would look to boost its profit from the current $2 billion declared by the oil corporation for 2021 operation.

Kyari pointed out that NNPCL has a powerful brand and it’s able to attract funding for its businesses, assuring that the company would deliver energy security to the Nigerian people while making money for the country.

He said that by fiscal 2020, they returned the company from 43 years of loss to a profit position of N287 billion, by 2021 they came to a profit level of N674 billion and they believe they will do better in 2022 despite all the challenges.