The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and its subsidiary the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, have expressed their readiness to professionally and efficiently operate the oil assets acquired from the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, stated this over the weekend at the end of a board meeting of the NNPC/NPDC in Warri, Delta State.

Yakubu said that the Corporation is repositioning to ensure that the assets remained productive and ultimately boast revenue inflow to the Nigerian economy.

“With the divestment of Shell, NPDC is the top and the only option for indigenous participation that will replace companies like SPDC and other companies that wanted to divest their equities. So NPDC therefore, has taken over this obligation of value addition as the flagship operator of the upstream business of NNPC. NPDC is the gateway of capacity development and capability development of the upstream activities in Nigeria,” he said.

He noted that NPDC’s operations has made it the highest local producer and supplier of gas for domestic gas requirement and Africa, adding that this has gone a long way in meeting Federal Government’s aspiration in the area of gas to power.

The NNPC helmsman further promised that as a socially responsible Corporation, the NNPC/NPDC will step up activities in the area of providing social amenities such as classroom blocks, educational scholarship, healthcare facilities, roads, and water for its host communities.

He added that by partnering with the various tiers of government in providing basic amenities to oil bearing communities, and stressed that the NNPC/NPDC will continue to touch the lives of Nigerians in many positive ways.

According to him, the support from the Warri communities indicates that the coming of NPDC to Warri will help in sustaining community development efforts in line with international best practices. It would be recalled that through the support and vision of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maduke, the NNPC/NPDC took over the management of some oil blocks in a bid to meet the aggressive target of producing 250,000 barrels of crude per day in 2015.