Jonathan gives NNPC 24-month ultimatum to rehabilitate 3 refineries

AS part of his four-year term agenda towards growing the economy through oil sector, President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to as a matter of national priority carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the three refineries within the next 24 months.

The refineries are Port Harcourt Refining Company, with an installed capacity of 210,000 barrels of crude oil per day; Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company, with a production capacity of 110,000 barrels per day and Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company, with an installed capacity of 125,000 barrels per day, bringing the total national capacity to 445,000 barrels per day.

The presidential directive which is now to form the Federal Government’s 24 months target for the major rehabilitation of the three public enterprises, the first of its kind since the construction of the refineries, is to ensure maximum efficiency and installed capacity utilisation, when completed.

According to Vanguard findings, when completed, the Federal Government is expected to save annual revenue of about N1.3 trillion currently spent on petroleum products importation and the associated subsidy, which has become a major cesspool for oil cartels in the country.

All these targets are coming on the heels of the ongoing negotiation with a Chinese firm for the construction of three new Greenfield Refineries to be sited in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi States.

A highly placed Presidency source told Vanguard yesterday that the nation’s carrier, the NNPC, has already mobilised financial resources from its internally generated funds to handle the major rehabilitation works in the affected refineries.

It was learnt that the Group Managing Director, GMD, NNPC Mr Austen Oniwon, acting on the directives of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has begun ordering long lead items ahead of the conclusion of negotiations between NNPC and JGC/Tecnimont Consortium (the original contractors that built the refinery) for the commencement of the rehabilitation works at the Port Harcourt refinery.

The rehabilitation work which is the first on the line of such repair works will commence by August this year, and is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012.

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