The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Mr Mele Kyari, on Thursday, said the corporation
deliberately shut down the nation’s refineries because they no longer make
sense to be operated.
The GMD disclosed this when he appeared before the House of
Representatives Committee on Petroleum Upstream in Abuja.
He said that the NNPC was unable to supply crude oil to the
refineries.
According to him, it is practically impossible to run pipelines at their optimum capacity.
“For instance, to run Kaduna and Warri refinery, you need to
deliver 170,000 barrel of oil per day so that both will operate at 70 per cent
capacity,” he said.
Kyari said that at the moment, it only had over 5,000
kilometers of pipelines with 13 fuel depots, which according to him must be
protected to forestall the activities of vandals.
“And I can tell you today that except the Atlas cove to
Ibadan line and also the Portharcourt to Aba line, none of these pipelines is
serviced.
“We cannot flow product into these lines, the cheap one is
to say they are aged but the real reason is that the level of activities of
vandals on these lines is gross, monumental and profound.
“At every point within a month we fix 80 vandal points, the
option is to shut them down and the result of having one depot is what we have
seen in Lagos,” he said.
The GMD said that the activities of vandals made it
impossible for pipelines to be operated, adding that from January to June it
had lost petroleum products close to N43 billion.
Kyari said that to protect the pipelines, the NNPC had to
engage the service of security agencies to curtail the activities of vandals.
He urged the House of Reps to urgently pass the Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB), adding that the passage would encourage investors in the
sector.
Kyari said that by the end of December there would be hope
for the Petroleum sector, adding that the NNPC would declare dividends to the
Nigerian people.
He promised to run the corporation with transparency and
accountability adding that the NNPC had published its audited report of 2018
and 2019, which according to him had not happened before.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
It doesn't make sense shutting the refineries down. If needed hire more youth to protect the pipelines. Don't give the same reasons for shutting Warri and Kaduna refineries. If you cannot deliver through pipelines to Kaduna then operate only Warri. Shutting down all the refineries is delibrate to boost importation from Niger Republic for corruption. How will you protect the pipelines in the isolated desert?
ReplyDeleteNo mind them how can we have refinery and be importing? Is unfair. So your borrowed axe is far better than your short axe? Haba NNPC
Delete