Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, yesterday asked the House of Representatives to exclude the agency from remitting its operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Yakubu, represented by the NNPC Executive Director in charge of Finance, Bernard Otti, spoke before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja.
He said: "In light of this submission, and in view of the planned amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, the Corporation wishes to seek the consideration of, appreciation and support of the committee to exclude the NNPC from the remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund."
The GMD said the National Assembly was not appropriating for the NNPC, so the corporation was dependent on its internally generated revenue to run its operations.
He told the House that these expenses included repairs of pipelines vandalised by oil thieves to sustain supply of petroleum products.
Yakubu said: "NNPC incurs huge costs in meeting its statutory and other assigned roles in the overall and overriding interest of the nation."
According to the GMD, NNPC lost N300 billion, N111 billion and N193 billion in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to oil theft.
He said that the NNPC was dangerously juggling business management and crisis management for the country and therefore deserved a waiver from remittances of its operating surpluses.
The GMD added that the corporation had been subjected to pipeline vandalism over the years.
NNPC Coordinator, Corporate Planning, Mr. Timothy Okon, said the agency was operating under challenging circumstances to ensure that production was not affected.
He said between 2009 and 2012, the corporation lost 11 million barrels of crude oil to pipeline vandals.
Okon attributed the corporation's inability to remit any surplus funds to the consolidated fund to operational losses suffered between 2009 and 2011.
The Group Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemicals, Mr. Anthony Ogbuigwe, said that the agency lost 11.7 million barrels of crude oil in four years.
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said the session was all about holding government businesses to account.
National Mirror