Page 37 - Nigeriaone mag 2 edition en

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is a Nigerian state-owned company and one of the
major oil players in Africa. In 2017, this company was the 19th largest producer of oil and gas in the world
and it supplied 10% of liquefied natural gas. Here is everything you need to know about this company.

History of NNPC resilient. One of its biggest challenges is meeting
Nigeria, according to many surveys, is the most oil- the demand for African oil. While it is doing well,
producing country in Africa, and this is thanks to much remains to be done to fully exploit its
its structure, the NNPC. Established in 1977, the Ni- potential.
gerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is In addition, it is operating on a stage that has a lot
the national state-owned oil producing and opera- of multinational companies determined to position
ting company in Nigeria. Since then, it has been themselves as leaders in the African market. In ad-
responsible for overseeing the relationship dition, it has difficulty financing its projects, which
between Nigerian joint ventures and multinatio- leads it to seek loans that are not always obtained.
nals. The structure underwent a complete overhaul As a result, the company sometimes has difficulty
when President Buhari came to power in 2015 and implementing its large-scale projects due to a lack
welcomed Emmanuel Kachikwu as its new Mana- of substantial funding from investors. Until recen-
ging Director. The following year, the latter gave tly, the Nigerian Petroleum Act has been somewhat
way to Dr. Maikanti Baru following the demands of restrictive. Fortunately, the law is now more flexi-
several eminent persons. In the years that followed, ble, making it easier for NNPC to partner with inte-
the structure went through many ups and downs resting players from different backgrounds.
before finally becoming one of the most influential
and active oil producers in the market in 2017. The projects of the NNPC
Currently, one of NNPC's most promising projects
NNPC's issues and challenges links Nigeria to Morocco. It aims to build a gas
Over the years, NNPC has grown to become a giant pipeline linking the two states, the construction of
in the industry. but this has not been without which would benefit both countries. The ambition
challenges, as the institution has often faced is enormous, as the pipeline is supposed to supply
internal management problems. Despite this, it has gas to several West African states and some Euro-
been able to renew itself and remain consistently pean countries. Everything is being done to make it
happen. Another major project is the Trans-Saha-
ran Gas-Pipeline (TSGP) which will be 4128 km
long. This pipeline will be the result of collabora-
tion between Nigeria, Niger and Algeria and will
allow gas to be transported to Europe, without for-
getting the Sahel countries.
In addition, it should be noted that there is a new
law on Nigerian oil that allows the public company
to benefit from support that can only help it to ac-
hieve its ambitions. In this context, it had obtained
in January 2022 a loan from Afreximbank to imple-
ment several projects. One of the most popular
now is related to the production of liquefied natu-
ral gas.
NNPC Headquarters, Nigeria © CC BY-SA 4.0

Focus 37