BusinessDay 10 Apr 2018

Tuesday 10 April 2018
19
BUSINESS DAY
Energy Report
C002D5556
Oil & Gas Power Renewables Environment
NPSC to embark on integrity audit of 5000km oil pipeline network
…as NNPC claims its financial statements are up to date
OLUSOLA BELLO
The Nigerian
Pipeline and
Storage Company
(NPSC), a
subsdiary of the
Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation NNPC
which was created out of
the former Pipelines and
Products Marketing Company
(PPMC), is to embark
on comprehensive audit of
the over 5000km of petroleum
products and crude oil
pipelines under its watch.
The length and breath of
the 5000 kilometer pipelines
have been vandalized to the
extent that for several years
the NNPC has been unable
to pump petroleum products
through them to the 22
products depots across the
country which the pipelines
are to serve.
This has been responsible
for the reason why
most of petroleum products
from the coastal state to the
hinterland are trucked with
it attendance losses.
According to Luke Anele,
managing director of
the Nigerian Pipeline and
Storage Company (NPSC),
the project which has already
been approved by the
NNPC Management is to be
executed by the National
Engineering and Technical
Company (NETCO) an
upstream subsidiary of the
NNPC Group.
“It covers the conduct of
integrity test on crude pipelines,
the products pipelines
and our depots, with special
emphasis on refinery attached
depots and refinery
evacuation lines,’’ he said.
The NPSC boss said
the outcome of the project
would guide the company
in arriving at informed decisions
and enable appropriate
strategies in the planned
Private Public Partnership
arrangement for the pipelines.
Meanwhile the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) said it
has successfully completed
outstanding audit of the
Group Financial Statements
from the years 2011 to 2016.
The audited backlog the
corporation said has since
been formally approved by
the Board of the corpora-
tion in line with extant laws
governing the operations of
the national oil company.
Isiaka AbdulRazaq, chief
financial Officer/group
executive director (CFO/
GED), Finance & Accounts
of the NNPC, while providing
details of the development
in an interview published
in the Q1 2018 edition
of the NNPC Magazine, said
the delivery of the audited
financial statements would
help foster better relations
with stakeholders and further
promote transparency
and accountability in the
corporation.
AbdulRazaq said the
drive to achieve the clean
slate dated back to August
2015, when the current
Management of the Finance
& Accounts Directorate took
over the mantle of leadership
and inherited a total
of 65 unaudited financial
statements for NNPC Group
Corporate and its subsidiaries,
covering 2011 - 2014.
“There were, undoubtedly,
challenges that led to
the backlog which may have
been beyond the control of
the previous managements.
However, the important
factor was not to look to the
past. We saw an opportunity
to challenge the problem
and resolved to clear the arrears
in the shortest possible
time,’’ the NNPC CFO said.
The NNPC Management
he said constituted a Project
Steering Committee
(PSC) under the Chairmanship
of AbdulRazaq
which met on a weekly
basis with the auditors and
all relevant stakeholders
to identify and isolate key
challenges and give them
priority attention.
“With this approach,
Management achieved the
first step of concluding the
audit of the 2011 – 2012
financial positions and presented
same to the Board in
2016 and in recognition of
that modest achievement,
the NNPC Board further
mandated Management to
clear the remaining outstanding
reports for the
years 2013 – 2016 and the
result today is the delivery
and Board approval of the
audited Group Financial
Statements as at 31 December
2016,’’ he said.
Operators say renewable energy investment will resolve supply-demand gap in electricity
KELECHI EWUZIE
Industry stakeholders
in the power sector say
investment in renewable
energy is the next
big step to resolving supplydemand
gap of electricity in
Nigeria.
They opine that in order
to ensure that the power
industry reaches its full
potential and address the
energy needs of citizens,
government must ensure it
create an enabling environment
for investors to push
funds into renewables.
Industry professionals
who understand the power
sector workings are of the
opinions that as low-carbon
technologies and green
energy continue to become
more commonplace, it is
important that Nigeria businesses
realign their investments
to accommodate
these modern trends.
Ayodele Oni, an energy
expert observes that Renewable
energy solutions in
solar have increased markedly
due to the falling cost of
these technologies making
them competitive. Similarly,
with the low cost of gas more
latterly compared to several
years ago.
According to him, “Connecting
renewable energy
onto the grid is becoming
more affordable as a result
of the abundant natural resources
such as abundant of
sun in the Northern regions
in Nigeria”
To them, while Nigeria
has typically lagged behind
developed markets in the
uptake of renewable energy,
with the right political and
economic policy support
from government, this will
become a feature of the past
as appetite for renewable
energy increases.
Successive governments
in Nigeria had endured
challenges with providing
Nigerians with electricity as
millions of people in rural
areas across the country
remains without power.
Analysts argue that another
alternative investment
that can shape the power
sector positively is the decentralisation
of renewable
energy arguing that if the
Federal government embraced
the shift and invest
in the space, it will yield
good returns.
According to them “Distributed
generation has
the ability to bring more
citizens into the energy
fold through the building
of smaller power stations
at specific load centres,
rather than building bigger,
centralised stations that
need to transmit power
long distance”.
To them, “The introduction
of multiple, smaller
grids can substantially assist
in transmitting power to
where it is needed, bringing
down the number of people
without electricity”
Olusola Bello, Team lead, Analysts: Kelechi Ewuzie, Isaac Anyaogu, Graphics: Joel Samson. Email: energyreport@businessdayonline.com, Tel: +234-8023020011; +234-7037817378; +234-8036534708