Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari has directed the government to reduce all shareholding in the Joint Venture Oil Assets to a minimum of 40 percent in the 2019 fiscal year.
The Nigerian presidency confirmed the orders on its official Twitter account in a statement attributed to Budget Minister Udo Udoma.
Nigeria’s state oil company the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owns a 55 percent stake in a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell. The NNPC also holds 60 percent stakes in other ventures.
Udoma had announced plans in March to cut Nigeria’s stake in joint oil ventures with multinationals to 40 percent in 2019 in a bid to push up revenue to stabilise an economy emerging from recession.
The Nigerian government had previously asked the Department of Petroleum Resources to collect license charges and royalties owed in three months. It also ordered oil companies to pay taxes amounting to nearly $20 billion that were owed to local states.
One of Buhari’s major tasks in his second term as president is to revive Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy.
