By Patience Chat Moses
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said he is holding the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) accountable for the scheduled deadlines for the completion of the rehabilitation of the country’s refineries.
Senator Lokpobiri disclosed this at the weekend while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of a three-day retreat at the State House Conference Center, Abuja.
Recall that the NNPCL is saddled with the responsibility to rehabilitate three refineries in the country to reduce fuel scarcity and increase dependence on natural gas
This follows efforts and spending of over $25 billion on fixing the refineries in the past 10 years, they were producing at less than 30% capacity, according to a report by the 9th National Assembly.
The report had called for a forensic audit of the matter and recommended that the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries be rehabilitated and that the Kaduna refinery should also be subject to such treatment.
The Senate has constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate the NNPCL over the N11.35 trillion spent on the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the refineries.
The committee was meant to interrogate the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), NNPCL, and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on the best approach to commercializing and ensuring the profitability of the state-owned refineries.
Fielding questions on when the rehabilitation of the refineries will be completed, Lokpobiri said: “ I have gone round all the refineries and from what they have briefed me, Port Harcourt has 3 phases, so Phase 1 will be ready by the end of this year. I am not the one who is directly in charge of rehabilitation, it is the NNPCL and they have told me and I am holding them accountable.
“For Warri refinery, they said Phase 1 will be ready by the end of the year. Phase 2 and 3 in Port Harcourt will be ready next year and the whole of Kaduna refinery will be ready by the end of next year. That is what they said and I am holding them accountable to their own words.”
The Minister said the easiest way to get out of the country’s fuel crisis is to increase production, adding that “If we don’t the midstream and downstream will also fail. We must produce the crude to refine before distribution.
He further added that amidst the challenges the industry is currently facing, the Ministry has set a target of producing at least 2 million barrels per day before the year runs out.