The nation’s refineries combined output has been completely grounded at zero, as the Port Harcourt refinery, which holds forth for the four refining assets also shut down.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who disclosed this at the Luncheon of the Petroleum Club in Lagos yesterday, said the the Port Harcourt Refinery has been shut down currently, bringing the combined output from 1.9 per cent in the last few weeks to zero output.
The NNPC had stated in its latest monthly report for September that: “Only Port Harcourt refinery produced 31,008million metric tonnes of petroleum products out of 35,648 MT (261,371.14 barrels) of crude processed at an average capacity utilization of 5.77 per cent.”
Kachikwu, who described the poor refining capacity as worrisome some said there was machinery in place to restore the lost glory of the refineries and ensure that they contribute massively to the national fuel consumption. He said the corporation would need about $500 million to fix the refineries, and he is determined to source for the fund in the next seven months to one year.
“Some people are sabotaging the efforts through pipeline vandalism, but we will block all the leakages and fix the problem,” he assured. Decrying the fuel scarcity scenerio, Kachikwu said the corporation is speeding up the payment of the subsidy claims, adding that plans are also in the pipeline to review the subsidy system and bring down the amount of subsidy from about N20 per litre to about N5 per litre.
According to him, “products distribution is key to NNPC, and we have therefore sent out about 5000 trucks to various locations across the country in the last two days.”
Kachikwu, however, restated his commitment to turn around the NNPC to a world-class company within the next six to 12 months and ensure that it works efficiently in a transparent and accountable manner.
“We are out for transparency. We will be engaging the presidency of weekly basis, the governor’s monthly, and the National Assembly on monthly basis, while we continue to publish reports monthly,” he said.
The NNPC boss, who agreed that these are very serious trying times for the industry, said the problems are actually more serious than we think, so Nigerians need to work hard and begin to add value.
