Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, has said the Federal Government generated over $2 billion from the renewal of oil block licences. The former Group Managing Director the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the funds will be used to implement the nation’s budget.

“We have actually asked for early renewals, because we needed to get money out of it to help finance the budget and from that process, we have actually gotten about $2 billion,” he said. The minister said his ministry deliberately put a policy in place to hasten renewals, so enough funds could be put together for the budget.

According to him, only about 30 of the fields, expected to add an about 300 million barrels of crude were granted licenses by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). Kachikwu added that about 40 others, as well as mega fields suggested to President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the minister of petroleum, were awaiting approval.

Source: The Sun