Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced September 2024 as a new date for the commercial commencement of the Port Harcourt refinery. The company said that petroleum products will be ready for the usual testing before it would be supplied to the domestic market next month.
This is the umpteenth time that Nigerians will hear the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPCL publicly making a promise on the resumption date for the refinery but have continued to fail.
The incessant postponement dates back to 2019 when the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, assured that the company would deliver all the four refineries in the country before the end of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. When that didn't happen, Kyari made a volte-face, citing a lot of reasons to defend the failed promise.
Fast forward to December 2023, Kyari again assured Nigerians that the refinery would begin the sale of refined products soon. He boasted that the 210,000 barrels per day facility had reached what he described as mechanical completion of rehabilitation work and would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after the Christmas break. Again, that didn't happen.
In January 2024, Kyari again said that the refinery was being tested and would be ready by the end of the same January.
In February this year, there was a glimmer of hope when it was announced that Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited had completed the supply of 475,000 barrels of crude oil to the facility. The development raised the expectations of stakeholders that production was set to commence. This was followed by the announcement that NNPCL was seeking to engage reputable and credible operations and maintenance companies to run the refinery.
Sometime in March, Kyari, who has become a metaphor for dishonesty, assured citizens that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence operations in April. But like previous promises, the April deadline elapsed, thus dashing the hopes and expectations of stakeholders.
In July, Kyari stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August. The NNPCL boss, while appearing before the senate, again boasted that all was set for the commencement of the refinery. Realizing that the August date too wasn't feasible, the company has again shamelessly set September as the new date for the much awaited resumption.
The continuous postponement has become a child's play. The NNPCL is taking Nigerians for a ride. Having spent a whopping $1.5bn on the refinery and it has remained moribund, it is time for action. President Bola Tinubu cannot continue to treat the issue with kid gloves. It is very obvious that certain powerful elements are profiting from the importaion of fuel, which is costing the country a staggering N2tn monthly. That has to stop!
They are the same people who have refused to allow the government to hand over the refinery to private handlers. Recently, the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, alleged that $4bn had been spent by the federal government in an attempt to revive the nation’s refineries. All of these could have been avoided if there was sincerity of purpose on the part of the managers of the nation's oil sector.
Like former President Olusegun Obasanjo said, in a civilized society, those responsible for this monumental economic sabotage should be in jail. We agree. Nigerians want a functional refinery so that fuel importation can stop and the pump price of petrol will crash. People are suffering, and the high cost of fuel is largely responsible for it. If by the end of September the Port Harcourt refinery does not come on stream, President Tinubu should wield the big stick for the interest of people of the Niger Delta and Nigerians.
