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New Target For Fully Operational Refineries

I wonder how many times we have heard these stories before - that the refineries will be revived and they will be fully operational by a certain date. Now, they are again claiming that the Warri and Kaduna refineries will be fully operational by the end of the year.
These guys should just SHUT UP and do something. Do it fast and do it well and get these refineries working. Abeg, aleviate the suffering of the people. Stop talking and get to work!

Since the Guardian Newspapers’ articles are refreshed on a daily basis, here are excerpts of the article:

NNPC sets December deadline to revive Warri, Kaduna refineries

NIGERIANS should expect functional Kaduna and Warri refineries by the end of December this year, the acting Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Alhaji Lawal Yar’Adua, has pledged.

To meet the target, the NNPC has awarded a N6.5 billion ($52 million) contract to a local firm for the repair of the Chanomic creek channel pipeline, which supplies crude oil to the two refineries.

Although the Federal Government has unbundled the NNPC and renamed it National Oil Company (NOC), the corporation will continue to operate in its present status until the National Assembly passes the law on the recent restructuring in the oil and gas industry.

He said the contract was awarded to an indigenous oil service firm, which had worked with the multi-national oil companies in the Niger Delta region. According to Yar’Adua, ” the community people have assured us of access to the place, we have evaluated the contract, we have signed the agreement with the community and we expect to finish this in four months. But I am putting pressure to see if we can reduce this to three months. We are looking at the possibility of bringing the refineries back on stream maybe before the end of December to see if we can give Nigerians a Christmas present.”

“It was over N12.6 billion ($100 million) but I have successfully negotiated it down, with the use of the indigenes to around $52 million (N6.5 billion),” Yar’Adua said. With the arrangement, the NNPC boss said, he had saved half of the cost of the contract for the country…

As part of the efforts to protect the pipelines from vandals, the NNPC boss said the management had signed a surveillance contract with the communities, stressing that by involving the people in the repair and surveillance it would go a long way in stemming the activities of the vandals in the region.

On the incessant vandalisation of the Escravos-Lagos pipeline, which supplies gas to Egbin Power Station and other gas users in the western part of the country, Yar’Adua said President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had approved fund for the repair in view of the strategic nature of the pipeline to the power sector and the industrial sector.

“The line was vandalised by militants and we just repaired it and restored gas supply to Egbin. We achieved this a few days ago after spending more than N2 billion. Now we have found five new vandalised points. I then had to go back to Mr. President and he has approved that the affected areas should be repaired. So really, the gas is available but the line is being vandalised,” he said.

Yar’Adua pointed out that the refineries were technically ready and in good shape. ” Port Harcourt is operating. Today it is operating at about 60 per cent capacity, we are going back to 70 to 80 per cent. The Kaduna Refinery is operating at 85 per cent capacity. Warri was operating until the 18th February, 2006, that was when the crude oil pipeline was vandalised,” he said.

At the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) secretariat yesterday in Vienna, Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum), Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, said the National Energy Council set up recently by the government would review the issue of refineries as contained in the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee(OGIC).

…
Ajumogobia explained that the problems with the refineries were systemic and bordered on spare parts, power generation and pipeline vandalisation, assuring that by the time government fixed these parts, the plant would deliver products to Nigerians.

On the new refineries announced by the former Group Managing Director of NNPC Mr. Funso Kupolokun, Ajumogobia said that the modality for the exercise was sketchy. He said it was not clear under what arrangement the new refineries would be built.

“I cannot say whether government will do it alone or in partnership with private sector but what concerns me now is to fix what we have. That is what we will do for a while,” he said.

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