Barley less than two months after saying that government will involve the private sector in rehabilitating all three national refineries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said it would solely embark on a comprehensive rehabilitation refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna to achieve optimal capacity utilization in 2017.
A statement issued by the corporation did not make any mention of private sector involvement.
The statement signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja after the Annual General Meetings of the three refineries simply said The plan for next year is to get the comprehensive rehabilitation programme done.
“The situation is like having three cars in your garage that have not been maintained for 15 to 20 years while you expect optimal performance from them.
“Changing one fuel pump here, one compressor there is not helpful. What we are doing now is to step back and take a holistic approach and do a full rehabilitation of all the refineries.” he said.
The position of the NNPC was further strengthened by the recent comments by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe kachikwu who told visiting lawmakers that “The country’s three refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna are not up for concession or privatisation, as there is no plan to do so, the Federal Government has said”.
According to him, “Rather, the government says that it favours private sector investment and subsequent joint ownership and management of the plants for greater efficiency, adding that it would not spend its money on the refineries anymore”.
The Minister opened up when he received members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), who were on an oversight visit to the ministry on Tuesday.
The Chief Operating Officer, Refineries of the NNPC, Anibor Kragha, stated that the Corporation was determined to move away from the approach of quick fixes and undertake a comprehensive revamp of the plants.
Kragha added that once the exercise was achieved, the refineries in due course would draw up a chart for routine Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) Programme as and when due.
On the earlier plan to have other refineries co-located with the existing refineries, Kragha explained that though the plan was still on course, none of the projected co-location refineries would come on stream in 2017 based on existing timeline for assemblage of the plants.
The statement further revealed that Port Harcourt Refinery is few steps away from hitting the mark to commence the production of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATK) for domestic consumption.
He said “We are very close; we have done tests with some of the key marketers. We have achieved all the parameters, we just want to be 110 percent certain”.
The statement quoted that Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Mukhtar Maiha as saying that KRPC was working towards a target of 75 per cent capacity utilization in the New Year based on projected supply of one cargo of crude oil per month.
In his comments, the Managing Director of Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Solomon Ladenegan, noted that despite the hostile operating environment fraught with incessant cases of pipeline pulverization and outright product theft, the refinery was looking forward to full capacity utilization very soon.
