As the investigation into alleged sabotage in the petroleum industry commenced, the Senate has raised questions over $1.5 billion approved in 2021 for the turn-around maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery which yielded little or no result.
Consequently, the upper chamber lamented that it was unfair and wrong to treat government businesses or public companies as an orphan while private businesses were flourishing and thriving.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader and Chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee to Investigate the Alleged Economic Sabotage in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, raised the questions at an interactive session with stakeholders in the industry at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Wednesday.
The session was attended by Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari; Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mr. Gbenga Komolafe and Chief Executive Office, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, among others.
The Federal Executive Council had approved the plan by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the Port Harcourt Refinery with a whopping sum of $1.5 billion under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, despite the huge investment, the government-owned refinery is yet to function effectively, a situation that compelled the country to depend almost entirely on the importation of petroleum products.
At the interactive session with stakeholders Wednesday, Bamidele expressed grave concerns about the dysfunctionality of the government-owned refineries despite billions of dollars invested to carry out TAM on the installation.
Bamidele observed that the federation “is undergoing a truly challenging period,” pointing out that the distribution and supply of refined petroleum products “has been irregular and problematic in the recent history of our fatherland.
“The long queues at filling stations are obviously a testament to this challenge. A situation, whereby we now depend almost entirely on the importation of these products, even when we daily supply the global oil market no fewer than two percent of its crude oil requirements, is to say the least, highly worrisome.
“We also have at hand a grievous issue of national concern that directly borders on the importation of hazardous petroleum products and dumping of substandard diesel into the country.”
Under different administrations since 1999, Bamidele observed that the federal government “has invested billions of Dollars to maintain and turn around the state-owned refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri. But the refineries are not functioning.
“In 2021, specifically, the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5 billion for the turn-around maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery. Yet, this investment has not yielded significant returns.
“For us, in the Senate, we believe, it is unfair and unpatriotic to treat government businesses or public corporations as an orphan while private businesses are flourishing and thriving,” Bamidele pointed out at the interactive session.
To permanently nip these challenges in the bud, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee disclosed the plan of the Senate to jointly conduct investigation into diverse allegations of economic sabotage in the petroleum industry along with the House of Representatives.
Bamidele, equally, noted that there would be no room for grandstanding during the investigative hearing, promising that the committee would carry out its mandate fairly and impartially.
While insisting that nobody will be untouchable, Bamidele said the task of ridding the petroleum industry of malfeasance “is urgent and must be carried out in the spirit of nationalism and patriotism. We are ready to carry it out with all senses of honour and responsibility.
“We are also taking it seriously with a view to addressing fundamental issues that pose grave threats to our economic prosperity, fiscal stability and public health as a federation. In line with our mandate, we will definitely unravel factors and forces aiding sabotage in our petroleum industry.
Also, at the session, Kyari claimed that NNPCL “is loyal and faithful to the country,” saying its management vowed to protect the interest of Nigeria in the petroleum industry.
He observed that most problems in the petroleum industry “have nothing to do with NNPCL. We are faithful and loyal to the economic interest of this country. We are not criminals. We are not thieves. But we will protect our dignity and honour.
In his own remarks, Edun said the increase in the crude would stabilise the country’s foreign exchange market while expressing confidence in the leadership of the ad-hoc committee to conduct an unbiased and impartial investigation.
In his contribution, Aliyu Suleiman, Group Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery appealed to the committee, NNPCL, NUPRC, NDMPRA and other stakeholders in the industry to help the Dangote Refinery get 100% of its crude requirement from Nigeria.
He said right now, they bought about 50 million barrels of crude out which about 60% of that comes from NNPC and 40% imported.
Mr. Suleiman expressed gratitude to NNPC for their support, but added that “essentially, all they are asking is for them to get their crude requirement from Nigeria 100%.
“Let’s be very clear, we are happy to pay fair prices. We hope that we’ll work with the regulator and we’ll get their support so that the refinery can get 100% of its crude from Nigeria and buy the crude from companies that produce it in Nigeria not from international middlemen.
“We count on support of the committee, the regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the refinery succeeds, because if it does, aside from the other obvious benefits, like forex generation, job creation and the rest, most importantly, there is the psychological benefit of making, giving Nigerians, Africa in general, the confidence that we can succeed.
Giving a progress update on the refinery, Mr. Suleiman said since the refinery started full trial production in January and then full time production started in March, we processed about 50 million barrels of crude.
We have produced about five million tons of petroleum products. And these petroleum products have been sold to various parts of the country and Jet oil has been sold in Europe since May.
He said other products have been sent to places as far as Asia, US, Brazil, and so on. So the refinery has been making a lot of progress.
He emphasized the importance of deliberately protecting local industries for the over all economic development of the country.
According to him, “the US, for example, has done that, to protect their own industries against attack by China that subsidize their own industries and then sends them to the US. So that’s the first question. We want to urge the committee to consider if we deserve protection against them”.
