‘We begged buyers to purchase crude oil at $9 in April’ — NNPC GMD admits tough year

Mele Kyari, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says buyers were begged to purchase Nigeria’s crude oil at $9 per barrel in April.  

Kyari stated this on Friday at a media parley with journalists in Abuja.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, plummeted to as low as $15.98 per barrel in April — its lowest since June 1999 — amid the collapse in demand and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Admitting that the oil & gas industry is facing difficult times, Kyari said the corporation has continued to maintain its obligation to the federation account for seven months without fail, assuring that the corporation would declare dividend to Nigerians and shareholders by the end of 2020 despite the huge impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the oil and gas industry.

“NNPC has never published its audited financial statement in 43 years. We came and started doing that and released the 2018 financial statement. We were not afraid of doing that and there were a lot of criticisms that we lost money in refinery operations and pipeline business,” he said.

“I have been around in this company for 29 years and I have worked closely with top management of the NNPC for about 15 years. This is the only president who has never asked NNPC to do something. Under no circumstances has the president controlled what we do.”