Samson Ayomide
The House of Representatives has set in motion machinery with the aim of ascertaining the actual production capacity of the country’s refineries.
Consequent upon this, an ad-hoc committee has been set up to investigate the issue.
The committee will also investigate the daily consumption of the Premium Motor Spirits (PMS).
Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House, disclosed this on Wednesday while reacting to a motion of urgent public importance by the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu on the need to address the issue of fuel subsidy in the country.
The speaker says it is important to first investigate the state of the refineries and ascertain the cost of getting them to function optimally.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of $2.97 billion for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries.
The rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries will be awarded to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited at the combined total sum of $1.484 billion and will be rehabilitated in three phases of 21, 23, and 33 months.
In March 2021, FEC approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers state
A total sum of $897,678,800 will be spent to repair Warri refinery while Kaduna refinery will gulp $586,902,256. The rehabilitation exercise will be in three phases spread over 77 months period.
“The completion of the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries is going to be in three phases. The first phase will be completed within 21 months, in 23 months phase two will be completed and in 33 months, the full rehabilitation will be completed,” he said.
On Port Harcourt refinery, repair work had commenced. Already the first 15% of the contract sum has been paid to the contractor and the contractor was fully mobilised to site.
In June, Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, had said the rehabilitation of the refineries, in conjunction with private efforts such as the Dangote Refinery, will transform Nigeria into a “hub of petroleum products and supply”.