Federal Government has approved the newly reconstituted boards of Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas(NLNG) and Bonny Gas Transport Limited (BGT).

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, in Abuja on Monday.

According to him, the new board, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, was necessary because the current board members had been in office since 2005.

He disclosed that the new board members for the NLNG include Dr Edmund Daukoru as Chaiman, Mr Henry lkem-Obih as a Member and Dr Rabiu Sulaiman as a Member.

Other Members include the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr Bitrus Nabasu.

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He also said that Daukoru was also approved as the President of the Board of BGT while Doyin Akinyanju and Abdul Abba are members.

The minister noted that Kyari and Nabasu were also members of the board.

“I will like to use this opportunity to thank the chairman and other outgoing board members of NLNG for steering the companies to record successes, particularly the Train 7 FID.

“l wish the exiting members good health and more successes in their future endeavors.

“To the incoming members of the board, I congratulate you on this appointment; your selection is based on your experience, integrity and expertise.

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“I, therefore,urge you to bring all these to bear in the discharge of your responsibilities in line with the progressive agenda of Mr President,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that some of the new board members had worked in the industry in the past.

Daukoru was a former Minister of State for Energy and also Secretary General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2006.

He became the Amayanabo, or traditional ruler, of Nembe Kingdom in 2008.

Also, Ikem-Obih was a former Chief Operating Officer, Downstream of the NNPC and Rabiu a former Group Executive Director at the corporation.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) spent over N535.9 billion on subsidy and Federation Account Allocation Committee in the first quarter of 2020.

This was disclosed by the corporation in its Monthly Financial and Operations March 2020 report.

The report revealed that while the petrol subsidy gulped N101.65bn in the first three months of the year, the sum of N434.25 billion was paid to FAAC within the same period.

The national oil firm described the subsidy spending as under-recovery. This means that Nigeria is incurring an additional cost in subsidizing the price of petrol to make sure it falls within the regulated price of N143.80 per litre, even though the real market price is above this regulated rate.

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It had consistently argued that only the National Assembly was empowered to approve petrol subsidy, despite the fact that NNPC’s monthly under-recoveries were due to subsidy on petrol.

According to the report, while the corporation spent N43.31bn as subsidy on petrol in January 2020, in February, it incurred N20.68bn as under-recovery, and N37.66 billion in March as subsidy.

However, subsidy was halted in March 2020 by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency after the crash in global crude oil prices.

The development, according to the PPPRA, led to the end of petrol subsidy, as the agency stated that petrol price would be adjusted in accordance to global oil prices.

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The PPPRA has adjusted petrol price about three times since after the first adjustment in March this year.

The NNPC report further stated that the corporation paid N434.25bn to the Federation Account Allocation Committee during the quarter under review.

It stated that in January, a total of N138.57bn was remitted to FAAC, while the committee received N148.53bn from the corporation in February 2020.

The NNPC said it paid N147.15bn to FAAC in March this year.

The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, has asked all contractors handling power projects across the country to return back to project sites following the gradual relaxation of the lockdown by the Federal Government, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The directive from the minister was contained in a press statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Aaron Artimas, on Sunday, July 12, 2020, in Abuja.

The power minister gave the directive during an inspection visit to the new Gagarawa 2 by 60 Mega Volt Amp (MVA) 132/33 Kilo Volt Sub-station being constructed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Jigawa.

Mamman, lamented the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the power sector, pointing out that the sector was among the worst affected with the entire value chain directly or indirectly counting losses.

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The Minister in the statement said, ‘’I can tell you that the impact of the pandemic is huge in the power sector as a real service provider. We, however, have joined the government effort to restart the economy with the easing of the lockdown and opening of the interstate road.’’

“I direct all contractors handling power projects to return to sites and work assiduously to recover from the losses recorded during this lockdown,” he said.

Mamman said the Gagarawa Sub-station project would boost power supply in over 7 local government areas including an industrial area.

On his part, the Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru, who was part of the inspection team, commended the power minister’s effort at ensuring completion of these projects that have been on for over 20 years.

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The News agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the sub-station is 99% completed and has been energized.

The acting Managing Director of TCN, Suleiman Abdulaziz, who was also part of the inspection asked for speedy completion of similar sub-station across the country.