Lawyer files FOI request on N11.3tr spent on refinery rehabilitation

A Lagos-based lawyer, Abdul Ganeey Imran, has submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, seeking details about the status of Nigeria’s four government-owned refineries.

The request comes in light of a recent increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and is prompted by a report from the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee, which claims that the federal government has spent approximately N11.35 trillion on refinery rehabilitation since 2010.

The Freedom of Information request is on the status of the four government-owned refineries in Nigeria vis-à-vis the recent hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

In the FOI request addressed to NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, the lawyer requested confirmation of the appropriateness or otherwise of the report of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the state of refineries, which alleged that the Federal Government of Nigeria has spent a total sum of N11,350,000,000,000 on the rehabilitation of refineries from 2010 to date.

The request, dated September 24, 2024, stated that if the figures being paraded for the rehabilitation of the refineries are not correct, the NNPC should provide the total sum spent as turnaround maintenance on the Kaduna refinery between 2010 to date.

Also, the letter requested the total sum that was spent as turnaround maintenance on the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries between 2010 to date.

The legal practitioner, who is a principal partner of Brown & Cooper Solicitors, stated that he made the request sequel to the story published by The Punch Editorial on September 3, 2024 (under the heading “Scarcity: NNPC Constitutes Economic Danger, Sell It”).

He wrote, “This prompted me to conduct further personal research. In the course of my findings, I deem it necessary to request the following information under the authority granted to me by the Freedom of Information Act, 2011:

“Kindly confirm the appropriateness or otherwise of the report of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries, which alleged that the Federal Government of Nigeria has spent a total sum of N11,350,000,000,000 on the rehabilitation of refineries from 2010 to date.

“If your response to the answer in question No. 1 above is that the figures being paraded or arrived at by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries are not correct, kindly avail us of the correct figure stating:

“The total sum spent as turnaround maintenance on the Kaduna refinery between 2010 to date. The total sum that was spent as turnaround maintenance on the Port Harcourt refineries in Rivers State between 2010 to date.

“The total sum that was spent as turnaround maintenance on the Warri refinery between 2010 to date. The annual refined products by each of the refineries in Nigeria.

“If the four refineries in Nigeria are fully functional to the optimum level, what would be the disadvantage of the same to the economy? And:

“If your answer to paragraph “E” is in the negative (that is, it is not going to be of any disadvantage), then why do the four refineries remain moribund despite the trillions of Naira that have been spent on them?

“Sometime in 2021, the erstwhile president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammad Buhari, borrowed a whopping sum of $1.5 billion dollars. This amount was specifically earmarked for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery despite serious public outcry that the amount so approved and borrowed for turnaround maintenance of Port Harcourt only was too outrageous when, in the same year 2021, Shell’s Martinez Refinery, which is of a similar size but more profitable than the Port Harcourt refinery, was sold for $1.2 billion dollars in California, United States.

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“In reference to this specific sum of $1.5 billion Naira loan that was solely processed and obtained for the turnaround of the Port Harcourt refinery, I seek to know: Which company was awarded the contract for the turnaround maintenance (in respect of which the $1.5 billion dollars loan was obtained)?

“What was the total cost of the turnaround maintenance awarded to the said company? How much has been disbursed so far to the company?

“What was the original duration for the completion of the turnaround maintenance?

“In 2019, the NNPC Managing Director, Mele Kyari, assured Nigerians that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammad Buhari’s administration.

“Also, in July 2024, while appearing before the Senate, the same Managing Director of NNPC boasted, “I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.”

“Sir, since December 2023, the NNPC, which is in charge of all the government refineries, has given Nigerians different dates (with utmost assurance to the citizens) that the refinery would resume operation; however, for the sixth or seventh consecutive time, none of the refineries has commenced operations. I therefore seek to know:

“The reason why the Port Harcourt refinery, in particular, and the other three refineries, in general, have not commenced operations in spite of these series of assurances and the huge sums earmarked.

“Whether the NNPC and indeed the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have the moral right to justify the insensitive and callous upward review of the price of PMS to N900 per litre.

“Whether the NNPC has any statutory power to regulate and fix the price of fuel refined by any local private refinery. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission complained in

“June 2023 that the NNPC withheld about N8.48 trillion it claimed as subsidies for petrol since January 1, 2022 (Punch, 3 September 2024). Furthermore, NEITI, in its 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report, said the NNPC did not remit $2 billion in taxes to the Federal Government in 2022.

“I seek to know the exactness or otherwise of these weighty allegations levied by separate credible and renowned Federal Government parastatals against the NNPC.”