Maikanti Baru, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said at the recent Nigerian Pipeline Security Conference and Exhibition, that three of the nation’s four refineries
will soon be shut down for repairs.
The refineries affected are the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, which are to be rehabilitated in order to restore them to their installed capacities by 2019 when the country is expected to end the importation of petroleum products.
“As you know, it has been the perception of the public that the repairs of the refineries are never done thoroughly. So this time, our intention is to shut down the refineries when we are ready, and then fully bring them back to what they should be as new refineries. Obviously, it is going to be a complex procedure and as such, we have to break down the various work packages to ensure that all the various workforces have sufficient focus, and if you notice the time that we inaugurated eight committees on the refineries rehabilitation, the work streams are composed of the general managers and executive directors level, and they will be having a day-to-day look at it, while the steering committee is at my level and that of the chief operating officers, all looking at the problems the workstations have and they will proffer solutions immediately,” said Baru.
He added that the Corporation intended to focus on the repairs of the refineries to ensure that they will be operating at full capacity by 2019.
Ndu Ughamadu, group general manager, Public Affairs Division, NNPC, said Baru, acting in accordance with a president directive recently inaugurated eight committees to oversee the complete revamping of the refineries.
The committees included workstations for rehabilitation, stakeholder management, financing, legal, procurement, pipeline, crude oil supply and security, and staffing and succession planning. According to him, about 28 companies have so far expressed interest in funding the rehabilitation of the refineries.
“We want to show everyone that we can fully run the refineries. You must all work together to operate them at 100 per cent capacity as this is the only way to ensure profitability. We can fix the refineries but without the right people to operate them, they will go back to where they were or even worse,” enthused Baru.