Refinery: Reps to Probe $396m Spent on Maintenance

• Refinery: Reps to Probe $396m Spent on Maintenance

The House of Representatives unanimously agreed to probe the $396.33 million spent on maintaining three petroleum refineries in four years.

The three refineries are port Harcourt refinery, Warri refinery and Kaduna refinery.

Despite the three refineries having a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, they operate far below their installed capacity even with the huge amount spent on maintenance.

The lawmakers, therefore, called on the Federal Government to “divesting a certain percentage of its shareholding in the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries to competent investors under a transparent and fair bidding process.”

During the Thursday plenary meeting, Mr Ifeanyi Momah called for a probe into the management of the three refineries, saying the amount spent has not yielded results.

The lawmaker said, “This objective has not been realised owing to a combination of factors, including corruption and inefficiency in the running of the refineries.

“The House observes the assertion by the Nigeria National Resource Charter in the report that the NNPC spent a whopping $396.33m between 2013 and 2017 to carry out repair works.

“The House also observes the claim that the NNPC spent N276.872bn on operating expenses of the refineries between 2015 and 2018, as well as $36bn on importation of petroleum products between 2013 and 2017.”

Momah added that the goal of establishing local refining facilities as a socio-economic game-changer has continued to elude the country’s oil and gas industry.