In a statement in Abuja, the NNPC disclosed that the transfer, which was a significant milestone, was geared towards meeting the NNPC’s target of growing the national reserve to 40  billion barrels and improving crude oil production to three million barrels per day by 2023.

The agreement was signed by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari; Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive, NAOC, Mr. Fiorillo Lorenzo and Deputy Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Mr. Omamofe Boyo.

Explaining the details of the agreement, Kyari stated that the NNPC sought and got the approval of the Minister of Petroleum Resources for the divestment and transfer of its interests to the NPDC, while all parties signed a Novation Agreement which transferred all the rights and obligations that was formally held by NNPC to the NPDC.

He said, “The Federation divested its interests in the NAOC, NNPC joint venture and that means we transfer those interests to NPDC. The meaning of that is to grow NPDC to become a medium-sized upstream company that the Federation and the NNPC will be proud of.”

He noted that prior to the reaching the agreement, there was a disagreement among the parties, which had been addressed and the challenges surmounted.

He said, “We had issues that we could not resolve, that prevented the transfer of those novations; principally, the lack of assurance that NNPC could not deliver to our partners to convince them NPDC will deliver to its responsibilities.

“Today, we have given them all the comfort and condition precedent for them to be convinced that NPDC would deliver. That is why our partners, NAOC and Oando have agreed to sign the novation agreement which will open a new chapter of business for NPDC and our partnership and it will expand the frontier of reserves and production for our country and the companies.”