Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mele Kyari has said Nigeria owes the company N1.3 trillion.
Kyari also lamented that the country is in a calamitous situation over massive oil theft and pipeline vandalism with attendant low production.
The NNPCL boss spoke at the Senate’s joint committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Petroleum (Upstream) and Gas in Abuja.
On NNPCL’s non-remittance to the federation account since January, Kyari told the committee members that the company is not owing Nigeria.
He insisted that rather than owing the country, Nigeria owes the company N1.3trillion.
He agreed with the suggestion made by Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) Senator Albert Bassey Akpan, that oil thieves should face capital punishment.
He noted that oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years “but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent time is unprecedented.”
