… Port Harcourt comes up end of year according to President Tinubu, TUC president disclosed
President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo says there is no possibility of the Dangote refinery kicking starting production before the year runs out.
The Dangote refinery and Petrochemicals was highly celebrated as a welcome development as the oil-rich nation was on the verge of ending its incessant bouts of petrol scarcity and price hikes.
Buhari had described the facility as one that would enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency in refined products and a surplus for export.
Owner, Aliko Dangote during the launch said that the first product “will be in the market before the end of July, beginning of August this year”.
However, Comrade Osifo, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday stated that it would take some time for the Dangote refinery to get to that optimal point of full production dependency
“As of now, they may have their own mechanism, because it is 80 percent privately owned that we may not know. But from our external view, we don’t think that it will come into even up to 50 percent production before the end of the year,” he said.
“Even if the Dangote refinery is working up to 60 percent in-store capacity, then you add that, although the old Port Harcourt refinery is quite small.
“But if you add that with the fact that today our consumption has come down, from the reported consumption of about 65, 66, 70 million litres consumed per day. Today, we now have this level of consumption somewhere around 40 to 45 million litres, these refineries could walk.
The Union leader noted that before the kick-off of the refinery, using crude in the test process would have hinted at the possibility of the product coming into fruition soon and lessening despair.
“You need crude to be doing some of the pre-commissioning stages. As of today, that has not quite commenced, but for the Dangote refinery, we are not quite sure whether it will come up between now and the end of the year.
“From our findings, we pray every day, we push, and we hope that the Dangote refinery should actually come on stream because we learnt that they have not started the full pre-commissioning using crude. For you to be able to know fully when the refinery will come on stream, you may have done a lot of simulations.
Talking further on the issue of refineries, the TUC President disclosed that President Tinubu has promised that the Port Harcourt Refinery will become operational by year’s end
Festus Osifo said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given his word that the Port Harcourt refinery will become operational at the end of the year.
Osifo, alongside his counterpart, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday amid a nationwide protest.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria (NUEE), the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also joined the protest.
The unions demanded “the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies of the federal government including the recent hike in PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) price, increase in public school fees, the release of the eight months withheld salary of university lecturers and workers”.
Two years ago, Minister of State for Petroleum Timipre Sylva under former President Muhammadu Buhari said in an interview on Channels Television that the “Port Harcourt Refinery will work, and certainly within the next 18 months.”
“There are plans to also fix the Warri Refinery and Kaduna Refinery and then we would get all those staff to work,” he added.
However, these refineries have yet to become operational.
Speaking during Channels Television’s Politics Today, the union leader held that the nationwide protest was “largely successful “and had the impact to spur the President to fix the major refineries across the nation.
“When we asked him, even before now, part of the things they have also said was issued around the supply chain.
“We told him categorically, ‘Tell us when would the refinery start functioning? What we had from them was that by the end of this year, the refinery – the whole Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream most definitely by the end of the year,’” he said on Wednesday night.
The PENGASSAN president also stated that organised labour would make sure President Tinubu’s assurances would not just be empty talk but that a structure would be put in place to hold the number one citizen accountable.
“Today, they told us that by the end of this year, the whole Port Harcourt refinery will come on stream. With the extra information that we have, we believe it is possible, but we need to keep checking on them to ensure that we actually achieve that feat.”
On the state of other refineries, Osifo believes the duo of Warri and Kaduna are an easy fix but that of the latter is hampered by the security situation in the country
“The Port Harcourt refinery is a total rehabilitation but the Kaduna and the Warri refinery is a quick fix.
“Both refineries, they awarded to do, but at a particular point, they will mobilise to Warri, but Kaduna they refuse to mobilise because of security issues. So, Warri is actually ahead of Kaduna, but as of today, they have not given us a clear timeline on that,” he said.
), Festus Osifo, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given his word that the Port Harcourt refinery will become operational at the end of the year.
Osifo, alongside his counterpart, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday amid a nationwide protest.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria (NUEE), the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also joined the protest.
The unions demanded “the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies of the federal government including the recent hike in PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) price, increase in public school fees, the release of the eight months withheld salary of university lecturers and workers”.
Two years ago, Minister of State for Petroleum Timipre Sylva under former President Muhammadu Buhari said in an interview on Channels Television that the “Port Harcourt Refinery will work, and certainly within the next 18 months.”
“There are plans to also fix the Warri Refinery and Kaduna Refinery and then we would get all those staff to work,” he added.
However, these refineries have yet to become operational.
Speaking during Channels Television’s Politics Today, the union leader held that the nationwide protest was “largely successful “and had the impact to spur the President to fix the major refineries across the nation.
“When we asked him, even before now, part of the things they have also said was issued around the supply chain.
“We told him categorically, ‘Tell us when would the refinery start functioning? What we had from them was that by the end of this year, the refinery – the whole Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream most definitely by the end of the year,’” he said on Wednesday night.
The PENGASSAN president also stated that organised labour would make sure President Tinubu’s assurances would not just be empty talk but that a structure would be put in place to hold the number one citizen accountable.
“Today, they told us that by the end of this year, the whole Port Harcourt refinery will come on stream. With the extra information that we have, we believe it is possible, but we need to keep checking on them to ensure that we actually achieve that feat.”
On the state of other refineries, Osifo believes the duo of Warri and Kaduna are an easy fix but that of the latter is hampered by the security situation in the country
“The Port Harcourt refinery is a total rehabilitation but the Kaduna and the Warri refinery is a quick fix.
“Both refineries, they awarded to do, but at a particular point, they will mobilise to Warri, but Kaduna they refuse to mobilise because of security issues. So, Warri is actually ahead of Kaduna, but as of today, they have not given us a clear timeline on that,” he said.