The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has reaffirmed its intention to issue its Initial Public Offer (IPO) to investors very soon.

Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, made this known at the 22nd edition of the 2023 Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy conference and Exhibtion held in Abuja on Tuesday.

The theme of the conference is, “Powering Nigeria’s Sustainable Energy Future”.

Kyari while speaking on ”Redefining Nigeria’s Energy Landscape for a Sustainable Energy Future’’ said the decision was based on the law.

“As a Company that it is guided under the regulations of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, the NNPC Ltd.will declare its shares to the public for acquisition very soon.

“We will pay taxes; we will pay royalties like anyone; we will also pay dividends to our shareholders which many of you are.

”We are in business and business means competition. We are a private sector, forget about the fact that we are own by the government 100 per cent. You are also aware, we are going Initial Public Offer very soon, we will sell a part of our equity.

”It is in the law, and once that happens, we will not be any different for any of you and it will be a very different business environment,” Kyari said.

On subsidy removal, he said, “Are we positioned to facilitate business? Yes, but our partnership produced over 80 per cent of the oil and gas in the country either directly or through our off stream company or through our partnership.

I am in a position to facilitate business. On the PSC today, we are just agents of the state, trying to make sure we deliver value to them and then they will pay.

I am sure you appreciate this new relationship. The PSCs are not on the balance sheet on the NNPCL.

”We make sure you do your work because when you do, we are compensated 40 per cent of your profit oil, so it is important for us as well as business for us.”

On energy poverty, the NNPCL GCEO said the focus was now to ensure that more people had access to energy.

“Over 30 per cent do not have access to electricity. So, is energy available or is it the problem of affordability.

“Or it is that we have an unsustainable situation or is it combination of all of them? I think we are dealing with the combination of all.

“We supply gas, we do not get payment for it; We supply power and we do not get payment for it.

”So, you cannot run any business this way. You cannot be sustainable. You cannot create affordable energy and it will not be available,” he added.