By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari, has assured Nigerians that the nation refineries currently under rehabilitation would be ready for use in 18 months.
Kyari, stated this yesterday during a live interview on Arise Television in Abuja.
He noted that full completion of the refinery rehabilitation will be completed in about 40 months but that production will start in 18 months from the date contractors moved to site.
The NNPC boss admitted that it has not done well in terms of operations, hence the decision to fully rehabilitate them as against the regular turnaround maintenance which has not yielded the desired result.
He disclosed that Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) has been awarded for the Port Harcourt refinery to be followed by Warri, Kaduna and with Dangote refinery, Nigeria will then become a net exporter of petroleum products in less than three years.
The crude oil marketing expert assured that soon contracts will be awarded for the Warri and Kaduna refineries since the contractor to the Port Harcourt refinery has moved to site, stressing that all rehabilitation of the three refineries will run concurrently so that they are delivered about the same time.
On petrol pricing, Kyari who put current market price of petrol at N256 per litre as against the N160 per litre it is being sold, said it was practically impossible for the Corporation to sell at that price because discussions are still ongoing with Labour and Civil Society Organisation(CSOs), Governors Forum and very many other institutions that we are still engaging on how to arrive at the best price for Nigerians.
‘‘Just three days ago I checked what the actual price of petrol should be and that gave me N256 per litre. But we understand the issues and we are discussing these critical elements with the stakeholders on how to move to a fully deregulated market.’’
He said the Corporation would borrow about $1 billion from financial institutions to take up less than 20 per cent stake in Dangote refinery. The NNPC boss said the Corporation would not be committing its resources to the venture but would rather approach multilateral financial agencies to raise the money and would equally pay same back through the cash flow from the refinery operations.