Battle for petroleum portfolio gets crunchy

As the screening of ministers continued yesterday in Abuja, high level lobbying and manouvres have intensified over who clinches the strategic petroleum portfolio. The power players in the oil industry particularly the multinationals were said to be involved in the scheming in an attempt to protect their own business interests.

As at last night, the ice was yet to be broken by the Presidency over who mans the juicy ministry among three top prospects. One of the three wholly South-South nominees is sure to be named the next minister of petroleum later this week by the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The nominees are former executive director-in-charge of exploration and production at the National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Chris Ogiemwonyi from Edo State, the former minister of solid minerals development, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke representing Bayelsa State and the immediate past minister of state for petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia from Rivers State. As Jonathan mulls over who to pick out of the three options, there are indications that Ogiemwonyi is top on the card to succeed Dr. Rilwanu Lukman.

Daily Sun gathered that his greatest hurdle is the oil majors whose stakeholders are concerned that he knows too much about the vital sector.
But placed one on one with others, Ogiemwonyi towers high above them. One of the reasons why the oil majors are uncomfortable with him was his role as one of the leading “local content agitators” which was adjudged good for the country, but which the multi-nationals never really embraced with their whole heart.

Analysts see Ogiemwonyi as the more suitable technocrat, who has the most relevant experience. The Edo nominee, who worked for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) up to April 2009 is the favourite among the junior and intermediate staff at the NNPC because they see in him an insider with the requisite knowledge of the oil sector. Ogiemwonyi, who was also a group executive director, Exploration and Production (E&P), of the NNPC possesses unassailable credentials that cut through both national and international levels as well as the downstream and upstream sectors of the industry.

Therefore, analysts believe his possible emergence as the head of the strategic ministry will be well taken by the stakeholders, apart from the selfish majors, going by his long years of training and international engagement, which has exposed him to the politics of international oil and gas development and as former OPEC Secretary-General, he is well-placed to understand this global dimension to the whole issues of transforming the nation’s oil and gas industry. Presidency sources said his appointment was based strictly on merit and performance. Lukman, the source said, has been on international oil and gas business and administration for more than two decades.

What counts against Ajumogobia is the performance of the petroleum ministry in the last 32 months when he was the minister of state. It was also gathered that the Federal Government was not particularly happy with the way the ministry was being run in the former era when Dr. Lukman held sway with Ajumogobia as his deputy. Apart from the frequent cases of fuel scarcity, there were issues of below par contributions by the critical ministry towards the realization of the set target for power generation and the poor state of the country’s refineries. A lawyer, his knowledge about the oil industry was said to hardly go beyond what he had gleaned since his appointment as Minister of State in 2007. He is banking on continuity as his forte, but it is doubtful if that will be enough to see him through.

On the part of Mrs. Allison-Madueke, the nearest link she has with the petroleum sector is the fact that she once worked with Shell. She is therefore not grounded in the highly technical industry. But interestingly the oil majors are said to favour her or Ajumogobia to head the ministry as persons who may not be in a position to unravel their hidden paths.

But those behind Ogiemwonyi believe that beyond the oil and gas implementation agenda, the new minister must quickly and expertly address the issue of fuel importation in Nigeria and power generation, be a major player among OPEC countries and fine-tune the nation’s strategy to ensure adequate fuel supply for domestic market without over-reliance on import.