NNPC GMD, Kyari Says No refinery is Functional in Nigeria

Mr Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has revealed that there is no single refinery working at the moment in the country.

Kyari made this  disclosure when he appeared before the House of Representative  joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) which is investigating the increase in prices of diesel and cooking gas on Tuesday in Abuja.

Kyari declared that the country’s refineries were not working at the moment, stressing that the situation was regrettable but the NNPC was doing something to bring the refineries back to work.

According to him, the refineries will not come back tomorrow, there is a process going on,  hence “We have decided to do a quick fix for the Warri refinery.”

He posited that no one could guarantee the security of petroleum supply, noting that countries were preserving excess volume that they had in their kitty.

He lamented that “The world has never seen this kind of uncertainty, today countries are stockpiling products. Shortly before COVID-19 the world was already facing a shortfall of 3 million barrels of supply of oil.”

The GMD highlighted that there had been no control to manage the energy crisis across the world, adding that” to guarantee energy security means you just make products available at any time and at any cost.”

He revealed that over 200 illegal refineries were being operated across the country, adding that the solution was to restore crude oil production. He added that there was a massive intervention that was ongoing and by the end of July “we will restore production to a level that is reasonable.

“Many European countries are asking for rationing gas, they are asking people to alternate their Air Conditioning.

“Today, countries are toying with subsidies because prices are so high because they don’t think they can manage inflation associated with it.”

Mr Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum, said that the current geopolitical crisis in Ukraine and Russia had resulted in the increase of petroleum products.

Ahmed hinted that this was because Russia was one of the major producers, adding that the war had affected petroleum products and it also affected all nations across the world and Nigeria was not an exemption.

The GMD said that the landing cost of petroleum products was also a factor, adding that the high cost was not limited to Nigeria.

“We need to see what can be done to alleviate the suffering of the people. If our refineries are back on stream and make foreign exchange available at the official rate of N400 per dollar.

“And if our refineries come back, we can then get a reprieve. We also need to address the issue of vandalism.

Rep. Abdullahi Gaya, Chairman, House Committee on Downstream, expressed concern that Nigeria had refining capacity but because none were functioning which led the country to her sorry state.

He pointed out that there was a need to find a solution to the high cost of diesel and cooking gas in a bid to cushion the effect on the generality of Nigerians.

Some of the lawmakers who spoke agreed that Kyari and Ahmed have presented a hopeless situation, stressing that they have the responsibility to proffer solutions.

The lawmakers also lamented that they were particularly concerned about the plight of Nigerians, as many of them collect a minimum wage of N30,00, adding that Nigeria may have to go the way of other nations by subsidising cooking gas.