Ex- NIHTE boss, Saidutasks NNPCL chairman, others to boost the nation’s oil industry, economy

By Ganiyat Kunle 

The Immediate past National Chairman of the Nigeria Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers, NIHTE, Hassan Saidu has applauded President Ahmed Tinubu for the appointments of the group Chief Executive Officer, GCEO, of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari and the Non Executive Chairman of the company’s Board, Ahmadu Kida.

He tasked them to increase the profitability of the nation oil industry to boost the economy.

Saidu who made the disclosure during an interview with Abuja journalists said ” the appointment of the new board of the NNPCL is to us engineers, it’s a welcome development in the sense that at least we are having a round peg in a round hall. 

“Engineers that were brought into the new body as the Group Chief Executive Officer and the chairman of the non-executive chairman of the board are experienced engineers in the oil and gas industry. For example, Kida was close to the rank of Deputy Managing Director of ELF Aquitaine which is presently Total Energies in France.

“Ojulari also is another technocrat, another experienced engineer in the oil and gas sector. We believe that they will bring their experience in the oil and gas industry to the NNPCL with the hope that with the Petroleum Act that brought this body into being, at least the country can benefit from the reforms that was carried out in the petroleum sector through the Petroleum Act that has been on the table for many years until the time that it has now come to fruition. 

“I think they have all it takes to achieve $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030 as predicted by the president because of their background, like I earlier said, because these are people that come from the private sector like Kida is into total energy, everybody knows total energy in terms of exploration, ELF of total they are basically into the exploration arm of total oil.

“So these are people with the pedigree, with the technical know-how and the commercial orientation to make that demand by the president to become realistic because of the background and experiences are there. So as engineers, we expect that they should be able to even surpass that target by the president because now NNPC is a commercial venture today. As a commercial venture, it’s a profit-making venture like the Aramco in Saudi Arabia, so we are looking forward to that. 

“We are looking also to them to bring innovations and that’s even the purpose of the act, the reforms that we have brought into the petroleum sector for us to achieve so that we can have a commercial orientation, It’s no more like a technocrat or a government agency. It’s a commercial venture.And by being a commercial venture it’s mainly there for profit which we believe these are the people that can bring profits to this organization and I don’t think they have any excuses not to do that based on their experiences.

Hassan backed the NNPC staff and many other sectors within the oil industry who are calling the GCEO not to bring external experts into the managerial arms of the oil industry but work with them for a smooth operations. 

He said “I think it’s their own right to protest because for anybody who works in an organization, in that system you want to reach the pinnacle of that organization. And by reaching the pinnacle of that organization you have lived throughout your life as a young man up to the time you become a management staff or you reach to the ladder.

“And you want to be at the peak of that organization. And all of a sudden they start bringing people from the outside. What will be the motivation? That is from the angle I’m looking at it. That is  their right because you are motivated by being that I’m working in in that place and several years you have  put everything to see that you become the head of that organization someday. 

“But I want to believe that because we are in a reform regime there are changes. It’s no more the NNPC of before that was not a commercial venture so we need some inputs. We should understand that they need some input from external people for them to be oriented to work in that commercial direction to change their outputs towards that of a commercial organization.

“I think it’s a transition period and we believe that after awhile, when they become able to transit from ordinary government agency to a commercial venture things will be okay and everybody in that agency should aspire to be at the height of that organization.”

On the  agitation that Petrol tankers are  causing havocs in the country therefore  should be ban from transporting fuel on roads, Engr. Hassan stressed that originally  there are pipelines routes for transporting Petrol products across the country so they’re not supposed to be transported through the roads.

“They are designed to move by pipelines that’s why you have pipelines from Atlas copco in Lagos off to Maiduguri, kano so you have depots accross the country that transport this refined products to all these depots. All you need is just within a short distance, the tankers should just move the product from one place to another. Because if you move it by truck, it’s increases the cost of the fuel we are buying it’s cheaper to move this products by pipe and the pipelines are there. It’s just that over the years, they have been neglected and not maintained. 

“And most of the problem we are having today in terms of bad roads is related to that because most of these tankers now are carrying more than the 30,000 liters. Some carry 40, 50, or 70,000 liters at a go which you know, that’s why you see some of these roads are going down because you have more axis roads that  it was designed for. So these are parts of why our roads are going bad.”

According to him people are not even looking at that aspect as most of these tankers, apart from the accident they cause, casualties and disasters anytime they have accidents they burn everything around them so they are not even supposed to be there in the first place because this thing has to be moved by pipelines. You know transportation has to be by road, air, pipeline, and water. these are some of the things that we should understand and the government can do it, if there is a will there.

The Expert stressed” I remembered about 10 years ago, we were still moving our products through the pipeline. And that’s why today, even if you move these products, you still go to the same depots that pipelines are supposed to go to before they discharge you to the filling station. No truck comes directly from Lagos, warri or Portharecourt and goes straight to a filling station you must go and register it, because even the registration and the loading system is still tied to the depot. It’s still tied to the depot. So it’s kind of a surprise that you know that we are doing things the other way around.

“The pipelines are there If they need to be maintained they should be maintained. If there are issues with them in terms of security or something, they should do something to make sure these things are moved. If they move this products by the pipeline it will reduce the cost of the filling by the end of the filling station.”