By Energy Worth
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, on Tuesday, refuted insinuations of plans by the Federal Government to sell the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG.
He said that there was no such plan at the moment. The minister made this known at the opening of a 3-day investigative hearing in the House of Representatives investigating the matter prompted by a motion entitled: “Need to stop the sale of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas Limited.”
Responding to a question on the subject matter, Kachikwu, who was represented at the hearing by a Director in charge of Gas Resources in the Ministry, Mrs Esther Ifejika, told the Mr Frederick Agbedi-led committee on Gas Resources and Allied Matters that government had no such plan. “We are not aware of any plan by the Federal Government to sell NLNG,” he said.
The committee, however, discovered some discrepancies in the presentation made by the Ministry from that of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as presented by Mr Bello Rabiu, Chief Operating Officer, (Upstream), who represented the Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru. As a result, the lawmakers rejected both documents for lack of authenticity.
The panel further queried the NNPC and the Ministry over what it called some staggering increases in the upgrade contract of OML 58 and the execution of the Northern Option Pipeline.
