By Emmanuel Nduka
After 21 years of struggling to fix Nigeria’s refineries, the Federal Government has approved yet another $1.4bn (N700bn) contract for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries.
The said sum was announced by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) with a breakdown of $897million earmarked for the Warri refinery and $586million for the Kaduna refinery.
According to the nation’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, who spoke to State House correspondents after Wednesday’s FEC meeting, the rehabilitation of the refineries will be carried out in three phases.
FAILED ATTEMPTS AT FIXING THE REFINERIES
Nigeria has struggled to fix her four major refineries in the past 21 years. Over N854billion in losses by the refineries have been reported between 2015 and 2021. From 2016 to 2020, another $389m/N165bn was squandered in a failed Turn Around Maintenance Program.
As noted by an industry expert, rather than privatize or totally scrap the refineries as some other oil producing countries like Brazil have done, the country is set to sink another $1.46bn into the refineries. As it stands, Nigeria wastes over N3trillion annually on importation of white petrol and subsidies.
While the rehabilitation is expected to turn around the sector and set them up to meet national demands, Nigeria’s four refineries have all struggled to function optimally, as the country continues to import petroleum products.
As promised in June, Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr Mele Kyari, said the rehabilitation of the refineries, in conjunction with private efforts such as the Dangote Refinery, will transform Nigeria into a “hub of petroleum products and supply”.
“It’s going to change the dynamics of petroleum supply globally in the sense that the flow is coming from Europe today and it is going to be reversed to some other direction.
“We will be the supplier for West Africa legitimately and also many other parts of the world,” he said.
