Contrary to the electoral promises of President Muhammadu Buhari that amongst other things, he will not only refurbish all four national refineries, but build six new ones in each geopolitical zone if elected president in 2015.
Six solid years down the lane, there had not been any form of turnaround maintenance (TAM) for any of the ailing four refineries.
Only Monday, the Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Mr. Ahmed Dikko, has said the turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the company would begin in April this year, if the COVID-19 pandemic could permit. He said all the approvals and support required from the government and NNPC had been given and a team had been dedicated for the project.
Dikko stated this recently when the members of the National Assembly Joint Ad-hoc Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) visited the refinery complex in Eleme, Rivers State.
According to him, “We have done a lot of activities; we are very confident and are sure that we are going to bring back this facility’s optimum production capacity in a very short time. “Our engagement has been very different; we try to carry everybody along, we try to open up and show a lot of transparency in what we do. “The whole arrangement is concluded and approvals are almost got; so, by and large, by next month or April at most, we mobilise to the site if COVID-19 permits”, he said. He noted that the company hoped to run the turnaround process through to the second quarter of 2023 when it would begin to inaugurate all the work they were doing in phases.
