The lower house of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives, has ordered investigation into how $396.33 million was allegedly spent between 2013 and 2017 to carry out turn around maintenance on the country’s three refineries in Port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.
The order was given yesterday during plenary following the adoption of a motion brought by Hon. Ifeanyi Momah.
He said Nigeria had been living with the derogatory appellation of being a major oil producing nation that was heavily reliant on importation of refined petroleum products for its domestic consumption as a result of its low local refining capacity.
He stressed that Nigeria has three major refineries with installed capacity to refine 445,000 barrels of oil per day, enough for domestic consumption and export.
He lamented that this objective has not been realised owing to a combination of factors, including ‘corruption’ and ‘inefficiency’ in the running of the refineries, whose regular turn around maintenance has been mismanaged over the years.
Momah noted that the a ssertion by the NNRC in the report that the NNPC spent $396.33 million between 2013 and 2017 to carry out repair works under the turnaround maintenance scheme on its three decrepit refineries at Port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna was worrisome.
He added that the claim that the NNPC also spent N276.872 billion on operating expenses of the refineries between 2015 and 2018, as well as $36 billion on importation of petroleum products between 2013 and 2017 was a cause for concern.
The lawmaker decried that the three refineries has contributed less than 10 per cent annually to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but lamented that they are also among the league of refineries with the highest operating costs worldwide, as their consolidated capacity utilisation dropped to 6.1 per cent at the end of September, 2017.