Why GMD of NNPC was Invited by Senate
The invitation comes months after Nigeria’s former oil minister, Ibe Kachikwu, said refineries will be fixed in 2020. He had also said Nigeria’s refinery capacity will reach expected 1.1 million barrels per day in 2020.
In March, NNPC’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu said the corporation’s refineries rehabilitation programme will commence with the 210,000 barrels per day capacity Port Harcourt Refinery complex – after several proposals by the corporation to boost the refining capacities of the four local refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna failed to materialise.
Only recently, the federal government sealed a $4.5 billion (N700 billion) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a consortium of local and foreign investors called Petroleum Refining and Strategic Reserve Limited, to construct six new modular refineries in the country.
These refineries would bring the number of new refineries to be built by the federal government in partnership with various groups to nine; with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and another consortium of investors already committed to the construction of three refineries in Kogi, Bayelsa and Lagos states.
Leading the debate, Ms Oko noted that although Nigeria produces 1.7m barrels of crude per day, its moribund refineries have very little refining capacity and imports roughly 90 per cent of its fuel. This, she said, negates much of the benefits accruing to oil-producing nations from high crude prices.
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