Director-General of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Engr. Sarki Auwalu, has disclosed that N2trillion was generated for the country in 2020, despite the downturn in the oil and gas industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is even as the DG promised to exceed the estimated target for the year 2021.
Auwalu who made this disclosure in Abuja on Thursday during the 2021 Society of Petroleum Engineers Oloibiri Lecture Series, also said the DPR has grown to become a business enabler for the industry in Nigeria despite the business environment in the industry remaining fragile
This year’s edition which is the 30th in the series, had the theme: ‘Operational Excellence and Portfolio Optimization, a way forward for the oil and gas industry post-COVID-19’.
Auwalu charged business operators to eliminate inefficiencies by reducing cost, building partnerships and entrenching collaboration in the industry.
He said the department currently runs a progressive regulatory regime that incentives compliance and reward performance rather than place emphasis on infractions and penalties.
“Like I usually say to my colleagues, we want more royalties, not penalties; we want to see compliance kudos rather than non-compliance notices; we want to catch our duty holders doing something right not something wrong. In fact, our aim is to ensure that regulations and industry guidelines are issued and applied in a manner that reflects good oil field practise, internationally acceptable standards and are responsive to challenging and changing industry dynamics and global realities”, he added.
Engr. Auwalu stated that DPR has consistently exceeded the government’s revenue target by embracing systems and processes that ensure transparency and accountability in oil and gas revenue generation, computation, collection and reconciliation, as well as legacy debts recovery.
“Last year alone”, he stated, “we have generated over N2 trillion for this country and we intend to exceed this value for this year”.
In his address, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva reiterated the federal government’s commitment to fully deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry with a market-driven price of premium motor spirit, petrol.
Chief Sylva whose address was presented by his Chief of Staff, Engr. Moses Olamide, urged the SPE members to brace up to play a crucial role in the industry with the expected passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, this year.
