Kaduna State’s former Commissioner of Information and Pioneer Chairman of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety (NIMASA), Tijjani Ramallan, has criticized the role of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in rehabilitating the nation’s four refineries, saying that it has wasted billions of dollars on Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) with nothing to show for it.
According to Ramallan, who is also a media guru and proprietor of Liberty Media Organization in Kaduna, the NNPCL has wasted heavily on Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) on its refineries since 1999, with limited success.
He said that to date, the four refineries’ performance has been plagued by inefficiency, corruption, lack of transparency, inadequate funding, and poor management.
He said in a statement on his Facebook page on Thursday that “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, or any future leader, faces significant challenges in reforming the petroleum sector,” particularly with the present sad development in the oil industry that has plunged Nigerians into hardship and poverty.
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Ramallan listed the indices of Key Refinery Performance Indicators thus:
“Capacity utilization: ~20-30% (far below optimal), Production: ~50,000-60,000 bpd (vs. installed capacity of 445,000 bpd), and Downtime: Frequent shutdowns due to maintenance, technical issues.”
He also noted the previous TAM expenditures on the four refineries in the country, which have not repositioned them for production, as follows: from 1999-2007: $2.3 billion, 2008-2012: $1.6 billion, and 2013-2019: $1.3 billion.
However, Ramallan said that the way forward under the situation Nigeria finds itself in managing the four refineries in the country is “Privatization or Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), Transparency and accountability in maintenance and operations, Investment in modernization and upgrading, Development of new refineries (e.g., Dangote Refinery), and Strengthening regulatory frameworks.”
He added: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration can learn from past mistakes and implement reforms to revitalize Nigeria’s refining sector.”
