PORT HARCOURT
Even when the Nigerian refineries are not operational, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has disclosed that it spent N100 billion on their rehabilitation in 2021.
This was even as it puts its net revenue to the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at N2.5 trillion.
In its January 2022 presentation to the committee, the company had on monthly basis spent N8.3 billion to arrive at the sum.
The group managing director of NNPC had in 2020 said the four refineries- Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Kaduna Refining Production Company (KRPC) and the Warri Refining Production Company (WRPC) with installed capacity of 445,000 barrels of oil per day were deliberately shut down as their operations were not sustainable.
Despite this, NNPC has continued to spend billions on the maintenance of the refineries.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council had approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers.
Due to the lack of domestic refining capacity, the country relies on imported petroleum products despite being Africa’s top oil producer.
The first phase of the refinery overhaul project which aims to bring the refinery’s production to 90 per cent of its nameplate capacity, is scheduled to be complete in 18 months.
The second and third phases are expected to be over in 24 months and 44 months, respectively.
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