Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, has said that the priority of the ministry in 2022 is to complete ongoing projects rather than initiating new ones.
Stressing that the ministry has delivered on all the priority project areas assigned by President Muhammadu Buhari, the minister explained that it was time to begin winding down.
Sylva, who was speaking at a Town Hall meeting with the management and staff of the ministry, stated that the ministry has roughly 12 months to complete its assignment.
“We have 12 months to complete our work and the process of implementation will wind down around September 2022”, he added.
Promising to deliver on the additional mandates “we have devised for ourselves,” Sylva informed the gathering that among others, the ministry had ensured the commencement of renovation works on the refineries through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
He further listed the commencement of the Train 7 project, driving the gas “revolution” and the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) coupled with it’s signing into the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as some other achievements.
The minister added that the upstream commission and the midstream/downstream authority were institutions established on the back of the PIA.
The minister said the year 2022 promises to be very eventful because there was going to be a lot of work, hinting that it was “not a year to embark on new projects, but the beginning of a winding down period.”
Noting that the main concern this year is to complete all the programmes that had been initiated, he noted that the PIA implementation had commenced and is fully on course.
On autogas, the minister affirmed that the programme had commenced and would be brought to completion this year, adding that the rehabilitation of refineries had commenced and some aspects of the rehabilitation would be brought to completion this year.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Nasir Gwarzo, described the meeting as a milestone and commended the minister for championing the birthing of the PIA after being in the doldrums for 20 years.
Also in an address, the Director, Human Resources Management of the Ministry, Dr. Famous Eseduwo, assured of the inistry’s backing and support to achieve the set goals of the sector.
