Nigeria's state-run oil firm, NNPC move to improve operations

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has commenced move to digitalise its operations as part of efforts to ensure the transformation of country’s oil sector, its chief executive Maikanti Baru has said.
Baru said this while inaugurating two committees to achieve this purpose.
The oil firm has set up two major committees to drive the process and they are The Systems Applications and Products (SAP) steering committee and the Group Process Council (GPC).
According to a statement by the firm's spokesman Ndu Ughamadu, the committees will aid the corporation to transform its operations from paperless to digital form.
He said the committees would be responsible for a holistic implementation of SAP and emplace enterprise resource planning which would serve as enablers for the achievement of the corporation’s success.
He quoted Baru as saying SAP was the platform for driving the transformation agenda of NNPC and the 12 Business Focus Areas which include: Ensuring security of the industry assets, Developing new business models, Providing viable alternative funding to Joint Venture Cash Calls, Increasing the nation’s production & reserves base and Growing NPDC oil and gas production.
Others are: Effecting refinery upgrade & expansion, Embarking on renewable energy drive & frontier exploration, Rehabilitating the nation’s oil & gas infrastructure, Strengthening NNPC ventures & common services, Enhancing staff professionalism & Accountability as well as their welfare.
He stated that the platform had the potential to significantly influence the corporation’s ability to compete, operate effectively and create value.
“We have commissioned a new re-delivery project to address the existing SAP challenges we are facing, we are implementing new solutions to manage some of our existing processes not currently on SAP.
”It will also enable us to obtain value from our investments in SAP and provide a working environment where our strategic focus areas are managed in an efficient and effective manner,” Baru said.
He said the Project Steering Committee would be responsible for the overall success of the project and would provide oversight on the management of project issues and risks, approve strategic decisions on SAP and ensure such decisions align with the strategic objectives of NNPC.
”It will also act as SAP ambassadors across the NNPC group to ensure business commitment and ownership of processes deployed on the platform.”
The NNPC boss added that the GPC was accountable for ensuring that processes are optimized and end-to-end assessment of processes are carried out before implementation on SAP.
He charged members of the two committees to firmly establish SAP as the single source of truth for the corporation’s business transactions.
”Let us all be change agents in this journey, drive user adoption, and also see ourselves as leaders committed to setting the right tone for SAP in order to ensure excellence and transparency in our operations,” Baru urged.
Members of the two committees were drawn from all the seven autonomous business units and all the strategic business units of the NNPC.