The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said he is holding the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) accountable for the scheduled deadlines for the completion of the rehabilitation of the country's refineries.
—Threatens to cancel licences of modular refineries not in useThe Minister of State for Petroleum Resources , Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said he is holding the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited accountable for the scheduled deadlines for the completion of the rehabilitation of the country’s refineries.
Despite spending over $25 billion on fixing the refineries in the past 10 years, they were producing at less than 30% capacity, according to a report by the 9th National Assembly. Fielding questions on when the rehabilitation of the refineries will be completed, Lokpobiri said: “Yes, the rehabilitation of the refineries if you could remember, was started by the previous administration and as part of the President’s directive, I have gone round all the refineries and from what they have briefed me, Port Harcourt has 3 phases, so Phase 1 will be ready by the end of this year.
“I believe that those refineries if we can achieve some level of rehabilitation by the end of this year will also improve our domestic refining capacity. But that is not even the problem, the Dangote refinery is coming. “What I have done is to also liberalise the process to acquire licenses. Before I came they said sometimes it takes so long to acquire licenses, so I said I don’t want to know your face provided the requirements are met, bring them to me I will sign within 24 hours and I have signed them.