Fg Pleased As Nlng Contributes $13bn To Federation Account

SAN FRANCISCO, March 16, (THEWILL) – Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning, has hailed the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) for the $13 billion contribution which it paid into the Federation Account.

The Minister disclosed that the gas company, presently ranked as the fourth largest in the world, had in the last 16 years delivered $33 billion revenue to government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)‎.

According to a statement signed by Charles Dafe, the ministry's Director of Information, The commendation was made on Tuesday, when the Managing Director of the gas company, Babs Omotowa and his management team paid a courtesy visit to the minister.

The statement disclosed that the Minister was impressed with some of the notable achievements of the company and commended the firm for having 95 percent of Nigerians dominating its total workforce.

“I am happy to hear that your work force and management team is 95% Nigerians and NLNG has reduced gas flaring from 65% to 25% and your company is the biggest shipping company in Nigeria having 23 ships,” he said.

“Also spending N3 billion in Bonny Community as part of their corporate social responsibility. This is clearly a good example of a successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. We should study and adopt this model.

“Although this development is not surprising, it is not good news as government needs more revenue to reflate our economy for national development,” he said on predictions that the company may not meet the N400 billion as 2016 budgetary revenue expected from it due to the current drop in the international oil prices leading to a drop in revenue by the company.

In her intervention, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed was bothered about gas flaring and asked wanted to know when it would end in Nigeria.

Responding, the NLNG Managing Director disclosed that the company was building its seventh plant that would be ready between 2021 and 2022, predicting that the project, when completed, would either significantly reduce or totally end gas flaring in Nigeria.

Written by David Oputah