park patterned after the Xenel Petrochemical Plant in Saudi Arabia and the Nagarjuna Fertilizer Plant in India.
The top management of the corporation led by the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, said during a presentation to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission in Abuja on Tuesday that NNPC was counting on the Federation Account as a veritable source of funding for the project.
The Head of Public Relations, RMAFC, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, confirmed the meeting in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja.
The NNPC delegation also identified state governments and local governments across the country as veritable sources of funding for the multibillion naira project.
Ige explained the NNPC Gas Master Plan Policy Intervention across the entire value chain of production, processing and marketing, and urged RMAFC to drum support for the project.
According to the statement, the NNPC director stressed that corporation was desirous of developing a multi-billion dollar gas-based industrial park fashioned after Xenel and Nagarjuna.
He said the facility was estimated to gulp between $15bn and $20bn in anticipated investment with additional investments in infrastructure and utilities to be provided by a special purpose vehicle constituted from willing investors and the Federal Government.
The NNPC official said when completed, the project would stimulate a geographically dispersed industrialisation of Nigeria and unprecedented job creations estimated at over five million jobs across the entire value chain in the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-sectors.
To ensure the successful take off and completion of the gigantic project, Ige called on RMAFC to join NNPC in sensitising critical stakeholders, especially the three tiers of government, so as to attract massive investment to the sector.
Speaking at the meeting, the Chairman, RMAFC, Mr. Elias Mbam, said it was necessary for state governments, especially those in the Niger Delta area, to invest in gas infrastructure to harness the full potential of Nigeria’s natural gas resources.
Mbam observed that given the huge natural gas endowment in the Niger Delta, state governments in the region could exploit their comparative advantage in domestic gas production by forging closer economic ties and jointly investing in the provision of gas infrastructure for enhanced revenue generation.
Meanwhile, the corporation has said the team set up by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to look into its did not finish its task before announcing that it owed the government N142.7bn.
The General Manager, Media Relations Department, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Farouk Ibrahim, said the corporation appeared before the committee headed by Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin early last month to clarify its position on the issues.
Jibrin spoke on behalf of the Group Managing Director, Mr. Andrew Yakubu.
The House of Representatives had on Monday declared that the corporation was indebted to the Federal Government to the tune of N142.7bn.
Jibrin said, “The management of NNPC notes with regret the statements credited to the chairman of the committee to the effect that the corporation owes the Federal Government the sum of N142.7bn in unremitted internally generated fund meant to be paid into the Federal Consolidated Account in keeping with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“Our position is that the team had not completed its assignment for reasons we will explain shortly.”
He said NNPC could not be expected to sweep funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund since the law specifically said it was surplus that should be paid.
“In a situation where due to no fault of ours, we operate at a loss, there would not be any surplus to pay,” he added.
The NNPC spokesman said the corporation had continued over the years to provide to the Federation Account about N400bn monthly from its upstream operations.
He further explained that after scheduling series of meetings, the team could not meet with the corporation, not until a review meeting was scheduled for Thursday, March 7, 2013.
