The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Friday, February 17, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) via its official Twitter handle.
According to the NNPC, the MoU covers collaboration between both companies on frontier exploration, and other opportunities to promote energy security. The statement read:
- “Earlier today, NNPCL and the Gambian National Petroleum Company (GNPC) signed an MoU for collaboration in the Oil & Gas sector. NNPCL’s Executive VP, of Business Services, Mr. Danladi A. Inuwa, and GNPC’s MD Baboucarr Njie signed on behalf of the two NOCs.
- “Areas of interest include new frontier exploration; crude oil market expansion opportunities and transfer of technology towards a quest for more energy security for both countries and the West African sub-region.”
NNPCL has recently called for more collaborations in the West African region. During the February 14 Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) held in Lagos state, Mele Kyari said Africans should work together to promote energy security and grow wealth for the benefit of the continent. He said:
- “We should collaborate and share knowledge and help each other in critical areas, including technology, exploration and production, research and development, technical expertise, and human capacity development to spread the wealth within the continent.”
What you should know
Recently, Gambian President Adama Barrow signed performance contracts with the GNPC and other state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to strengthen their performance and operations. According to President Barrow, performance contracts are designed to challenge SOEs and spell out the roles they are expected to play to achieve the objectives and targets set for them.
- The performance contracts are to ascertain that SOE performance and results are closely and rightly monitored and measured.
- The contracts also guarantee the establishment of a strategic framework for accountability and effective communication between the enterprises and their stakeholders.
- In 2019, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC-Ghana) signed an MoU with GNPC-Gambia and the MoU was renewed in 2022. Under the MoU, GNPC-Ghana will support GNPC-Gambia by providing technical capacity building in petroleum research, exploration and production techniques, information systems and data management.
- Nigeria already has an existing MoU with the Gambia. In December 2022, the NNPCL signed an MoU with Gambia and four other countries on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas
