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IPMAN lauds FG over contracts for revamping of Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna refineries
Alhaji Debo Ahmed
Stanley John
National Deputy President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, on Friday commended the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari, for approving contracts for the rehabilitation of Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries.
Speaking with journalists, Ahmed said the rehabilitation of the refineries will aid the expected full deregulation of the down stream sector to have less adverse effects on Nigerians.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timpere Sylva, had at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday announced that the FEC had approved the sum of $1.48 billion for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries.
Sylva had said the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries will be awarded to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited at a total sum of $1.484 billion. He added that they would be rehabilitated in three phases of 21, 23 and 33 monthsspread over 77 months period.
According to the minister, $897,678,800 will be spent on the repairs of Warri refinery while $586,902,256 will be invested in the rehabilitation of Kaduna refinery.
Sylva said, “The FEC approved the sum of $1.48 billion for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries.The completion of the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries is going to be in three phases. First phase will be completed within 21 months, in 23 months phase two will be completed and in 33 months, the full rehabilitation will be completed.”
He stated that repairs work had commenced on Port Harcourt refinery, and added that already the first 15% of the contract sum had been paid to the contractor and that the contractor had been fully mobilised to site.
Ahmed in the interview with journalists said the rehabilitation of the refineries and the commencement of operations by the Dangote Refinery will make Nigeria an exporter of refined petroleum products in Africa.
According to him, such development will increase revenue for the FG, conserver foreign exchange, create jobs of millions of Nigerians in the value chain and improve the wellbeing and welfare of Nigerians.
He recalled that Nigeria was exporting refined petroelum products to some African countrfies in the past when the nation’s three refineries were in operation.
He lamented that currently Nigeria is importing petroleum products.
He said when the three refineries resume refining of petroleum products, the products will be cheap, readily available.
The IPMAN Deputy National President also commended the FG for revamping many depots across the country.
He stated that the revamping of many depots in Nigeria has led to an improvement in the distribution of petroleum products across the country.
Ahmed said, “I think it (rehabilitation of the refineries) is a very good development from the Federal Government. Deregulation can only work properly for Nigerians, if refineries are working. Deregulation under importation will be determined by the movement of the dollars and he naira is going down now; consequently, the cost of petroleum products will be expensive for an average Nigerian to get through. So if they will be able to repair the refineries and they are working, it is a good development.
“I commend the FG for such gigantic steps taken to revamp these refineries so that they will produce locally for local consumption. I even learnt that we can export some refined products if all these refineries, including the Dangote Refinery, are working. I think Nigeria is going to have it in a very good way where deregulation will not have so much negative effects on the Nigerian public.
“With the rehabilitation of the three refineries and the completion of Dangote Refinery, Nigeria is set to be an exporter of refined petroleum products in the African region because in those days when the nation’s refineries were working, we were even exporting to Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroum. Infact, that time was the old good days, so they should make sure that we come back to the old oil good days. That will be better for Nigeria.”
He added, “Nigerians should try as much as possible to wait and see what is going to happen with these refineries. At the long run, when all these refineries are working, it will be to the benefits of Nigerians in terms of purchasing of refined petroleum products and even development of the country because most of these African countries will depend on us. It will also bring a lot of money to the FG.
“In-addition, if we are refining locally, the cost of petroleum products will come down and the products will readily be available because importation is a very deadly way of managing resources.
“We have enough crude, we can refine for our local consumption and even for export. We will not have problem in buying and selling of the products because we have the crude in abundance. The FG is trying too, most of these depots are revamped, they are coming back and are receiving products. The depot lines are being managed by top security personnel.”
It could be recalled that the FEC had in March 2021, approved a total sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt Refinery in Rivers State.
Consequently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had in April, 2021 signed a contract with Maire Tecnimont SpA, an international company, for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The project, it was learnt, involved the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities for a full rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery complex, so as to restore the complex to a minimum of 90 per cent of its nameplate capacity.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, had said the project would be completed in three phases.
According to him, the first phase will be completed within 18 months and would be taking the refinery to 90 per cent production capacity.
He added that the second phase would be carried out within 24 months while the final phase is to be carried out within 44 months.
Industry sources further said the complex comprises two refineries of a total capacity of approximately 210,000 bpd (barrels per day).
They had stated that Nigeria has refineries in Rivers State, Warri, Delta State and Kaduna State with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The Dangote Petroleumand Petrochemical Refineries, which is owned by the Dangote Group, and is under construction in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria on completion; will have the capacity to process about 650,000 bpd, and consequently becomes Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the largest single train refinery in the world.
Aliko Dangote, the President, Dangote Group, has invested over $7billion in the refinery.
However, the FEC on Wednesday, August 04, 2021 approved the sum of $2.76bn for the NNPC to acquire a 20 per cent minority equity stake in Dangote Refinery.
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