Kyari Says Individuals Can Acquire Stakes In NNPC

There is provision in the Petroleum Industry Act that gives room for individuals to acquire stakes in the new Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, said on Tuesday.

Kyari stated that though this would not happen immediately, the major shareholders of the new NNPC were allowed in the PIA to sell shares of the national oil firm to private individuals.

The NNPC boss, who disclosed this during a live television programme monitored in Lagos, also explained that the allocation of three per cent oil companies operating expense to host communities could be higher than the 30 per cent profit of oil and gas for frontier exploration.

On the transformation of NNPC from a statutory corporation to a limited liability company, Kyari said the new oil firm would have government shareholders to be represented by the ministers of finance and petroleum resources.

“So, these shareholders can decide, as the law provides that over time, they can reduce the shareholding into some private shareholding.