Again, NNPCL promises PH Refinery begins production early August

Share

By Haruna Salami

For the umpteenth time, the NNPC Group CEO, Mele Kyari has promised that the nation’s refurbished refineries will start production in early August 2024.

He stated this Monday at a critical meeting at the National Assembly between the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Finance with the Ministers of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, Petroleum Resources (State) Heineken Lokpobiri, Finance, Wale Edun, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO, NNPCL) Mele Kyari, Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Zacch Adedeji and representative of CBN Governor, Mohammed Sani Abdullahi.

At the commencement of the meeting, chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East) put Kyari to task when he said Group CEO, we have not reached the questions and answers session, but for the benefit of the press that are here, I know that they are very keen to know if we will start our domestic production from our refineries that have been refurbished. So, if you can just give a word on that, then we now excuse the press so that we can go on to the closed session.

Kyari responded thus: “Yes, I’m aware that there are several comments in the public space around refining business and domestic production, including production that will come from the commissioned Dangote refinery. Yes, this country, as we have said, will be a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of this year.

“We’re very optimistic that by December this country will be a net exporter. That means a combination of production coming from us, and also from Dangote refinery and other smaller producing companies that we know are in line to do this.

See also  Senate wades into delay in execution of $2.8billion AKK Gas Pipeline Project

“So I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.

“And specific to NNPC refinery. As you recall, and we have spoken to a number of your committees, that it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come to operation before December, it will get to December. Both Warri and Kaduna.

“Let me explain this very clearly. We did have mechanical completion of the Port Hacourt refinery, which means that every technical work that is required to get the refinery on to work has been completed. This is what we announced December last year, if you recall.

“Once you are mechanically completed for an existing refinery, even for new ones, there are a number of technical steps that you have to take when you are introducing hydrocarbon into this plant. It is only then that you will see the real challenges of even a new refinery. And I can confirm to you today that we have gone through this.

“We are already introducing hydrocarbon under a hot situation, that’s what we call it. And I’m very sure that latest by early August, the Port Hacourt refinery will start producing product.

“And of course, the new one will get to December. And Warri will also be in production. I’m very optimistic.

“I don’t have any confirmation at this moment, so that nobody quotes me and says, oh, you keep lying. No, we’re not lying to you, Mr. President. This is a technical process.

“We do our best of intention. You can put dates on a refinery start-up, but it is when you get to start-up that you see the real challenges, even for a new refinery. As you can see, even a new, Port Hacourt refinery, it really has to take steps and processes to get it to full operation.

See also  Dangote Refinery makes case for 100% Nigerian crude …as Senate probes alleged sabotage in petroleum industry By Our Correspondent The Dangote Refinery has made passionate appeal to the Senate, NNPCL, NUPRC, NDMPRA and other stakeholders in the industry to help supply the refinery its crude oil need 100 per cent from Nigeria. Group Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery, Aliyu Suleiman made the appeal at the Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing alleged economic sabotage in petroleum industry at the Senate Complex, Abuja on Wednesday. He said right now, the refinery bought about 50 million barrels of crude out of which about 60% comes from NNPC. Mr. Suleiman who expressed gratitude to NNPC for their support, added that, essentially, all they are asking is for them to get their crude requirement from Nigeria 100%. “Let's be very clear, we are happy to pay fair prices. We hope that we'll work with the regulator and we'll get their support so that the refinery can get 100% of its crude from Nigeria and buy the crude from companies that produce it in Nigeria not from international middlemen. “We count on support of the committee, the regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the refinery succeeds, because if it does, aside from the other obvious benefits, like forex generation, job creation and the rest, most importantly, there is the psychological benefit of making, giving Nigerians, Africa in general, the confidence that we can succeed. Giving a progress update on the refinery, Mr. Suleiman said since the refinery started full trial production in January and then full time production started in March, we processed about 50 million barrels of crude. “We have produced about five million tons of petroleum products. And these petroleum products have been sold to various parts of the country and Jet oil has been sold in Europe since May. He said other products have been sent to places as far as Asia, US, Brazil, and so on. So the refinery has been making a lot of progress. He emphasized the importance of deliberately protecting local industries for the over all economic development of the country. According to him, “the US, for example, has done that, to protect their own industries against attack by China that subsidize their own industries and then sends them to the US. So that's the first question. We want to urge the committee to consider if we deserve protection against them”. He posed three basic questions that revolved around protection of local industries for the consideration of the committee and Nigerians at large. The questions are: “Do local refineries deserve protection from NUPRC? “Should Nigeria protect its infant industries in order to improve investment? “Should local refineries have preferential access to Nigerian crude? He said Dangote found itself competing against Russian products that were produced with oil that is valued at $60. “We all know that because of the cap that has been put Russian oil, the value of Russian oil today in the market is $60. And that's what Russia is using to produce their products and those products are being sent in large quantities into Africa to compete with products that are produced in refineries that buy crude at $90. “We don't think this will be a fair competitive environment and I think that when you have such unfair competition, it is normal to put protective measures. “I think even in the animal world, the moment a new baby is born, they don't just go and leave it out in the wild. “What we want is to sell more of our products in Nigeria, because we believe we can do that, we can compete. And even though there are concerns that have been expressed around monopoly, that is a problem that has been identified. The right thing to do is to say, how do we address this problem? If monopoly is a risk, how do we address this risk while at the same time ensuring that we protect our domestic industries? The good thing is that in the PIA, there are provisions around that, you can monitor and take action if you feel there's monopoly.

“This is very normal in a refinery operation. So we don’t put hard date on it because there are things that you are never in control. Otherwise, I can confirm to you that we are taking every step to make sure that it works”.

He gave confirmation that NNPC and the oil and gas industry is very critical in bringing a turnaround in our current economic situation, and they understand the importance of this, adding “we are taking every step that is practical for us to achieve this”.

Representative of the CBN Governor, Mohammed Sani Abdullahi, Deputy Governor, (Economic Policy) expressed confidence that Nigeria will overcome the current economic challenges and come out stronger.

According to him, some of the challenges like inflation has been with us for decades, adding that “some of these challenges are what other countries go through”.

He was confident that the direction the country has taken is “positive”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *