Stop playing politics with repair of Warri, P/Harcourt refineries, group tells NNPCL

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has been called upon to stop playing politics over the revitalisation of the comatose Warri, Port Harcourt refineries in the country.

The Niger Delta Development & Transformation Initiative (NDDTI), behind the admonition posited that talks that could salvage the ailing energy sector in Nigeria cannot be realized until local refineries were put to operations.

The group led by Barr. Lawrence Etienne, in a statement on Friday warned the NNPCL particularly, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, to stop deceiving Nigerians over the Port Harcourt refinery.

The group said NNPCL has been playing politics over the moribund local refineries, saying, it keeps shifting the goalposts on deadlines for completion of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

The group observed that the NNPCL have now desisted from giving new deadlines for the delivery of Port Harcourt refinery, having failed to meet its September deadline.

“In July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August. He had said in 2019 that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration last year,” it noted.

“President Muhammad Buhari has since left the seat since one and half years ago, yet, none of the Nigeria’s refineries is working, despite billions of dollars NNPCL collected from Nigeria’s government, most of which was taken as a foreign loan.”

NDDTI also averred that Kyari “deceived” the Nigerian Senate, when he appeared before it in July 2024, and promised the Distinguished Lawmakers that, by the end of the year, Nigeria would be a net exporter of petroleum products; adding that, the year is almost ended, yet Nigeria still imports petroleum products, albeit, fake and sulphur induced products.

Barely two months after the September completion deadline flop, the NNPCL has explained why it could not deliver the much-awaited Port Harcourt Refinery Company.

While interacting with Journalists on Monday, the NNPC Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said the company encountered risks and challenges while carrying out the rehabilitation, being a brownfield project.

He noted that the NNPC began the commissioning of critical equipment and processing units after the mechanical completion in Nigeria. The agency refused to disclose a new deadline for the completion of Port Harcourt refinery.

Nigerians have been hopeful that the cost of fuel could crash if the country refines its crude and ends the import of refined products.

The refinery, situated in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region, has been in operation since 1965, but later became moribund for several years.

In March 2021, the Nigerian government acquired a $1.5bn loan for the renovation and modernisation of the refinery, but the contractor handling the project has yet to announce its completion.