By Bassey Udo
The nation’s four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna have not functioned because of the poor execution of the turnaround maintenance exercises and other factors over the years, the Group Managing Director/CEO, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, has said.
Kyari who was addressing members of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating the state of the refineries in Abuja said this has been the main cause of deterioration and near collapse of the nation’s refineries.
“We recognise that today none of our four refineries is operating for the very obvious reason that through the work of this committee, you will find out why they are not operating. We will hide nothing from you. We will also tell you where we are as we speak today.
“Needless to say that the refineries were essentially not properly managed over time, not just today, but in the last 20 to 25 years. The turnaround maintenance processes were clearly mismanaged over time. I have said this over and over, and I am saying it again.
“We have degradation of monumental proportions that we met, and of course, the only way you can do this is to conduct full turnaround maintenance,” Kyari told the lawmakers.
Besides, Kyari told the committee that various factors, including vandalism and sabotage of facilities and pipelines have also contributed to the drawbacks being experienced for decades regarding the breakdown of the refineries and failure of the turnaround maintenance to make an impact.
He said the current plan by the NNPC was to concurrently proceed with the work so that as Port Harcourt Refinery comes up, Kaduna and Warri will also come up until the total rehabilitation of the refineries is completed.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson reminded stakeholders that the committee was set up to investigate the state of refineries in Nigeria to determine the actual cost of rehabilitation and what was needed to bring them back to maximum refining capacity.
After the deliberations, the committee requested the NNPC management to reappear before the committee on June 3, 2022 with details and records of the ongoing and past turnaround maintenance exercises.
