The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has disclosed that the country’s refineries have been damaged beyond the usual Turnaround Maintenance, TAM.
The Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, Ezekiel Osarolube, made the disclosure on Wednesday during the virtual Oil Trading and Logistics, OTL, Africa Downstream Expo 2020.
Mr Osarolube, however, assured that the national oil is embarking upon total rehabilitation of the plants to revamp them.
He said: “Despite currently being non-functional, the plants gulp about N10 billion monthly in payment of salaries and other in-built costs.”
He explained that there is now a private/public arrangement in the revamping of the refineries, adding that getting them back on stream remains a priority for the NNPC.
“The first phase of this project is to raise capacity and second phase is to upgrade and modernise to meet current trends; so, we need time to get there.
“There’s a difference between turnaround maintenance and what we are doing now.
“The traditional TAM, which the whole world knows is usually statutory, which is done two to three years, is to open and clean the system.
“But because of the long neglect, we have gone beyond that level of turnaround.
“What we are talking about now is comprehensive rehabilitation, which will involve replacing very obsolete equipment that can bring the plants back to optimum performance,” he stated.
According to him, the journey to make the plants resume production is ongoing with steps going on in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, with a roadmap followed religiously.
“Every month, we have a stakeholders’ meeting to review where we are and if there are any slippages and how to recover because top management is focused on this project as the number one project of NNPC.
“We are dealing with people who are good in the business and they also want to recoup their money. All the fears will be taken care of and everyone will be proud of the NNPC,” he stated.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the EXPO which had its theme as “Petroleum Refining Trends and Outlook for Tomorrow’s Energy Supply,” attributed the prolonged neglect of overhauling the refineries in the country to the delay in making them functional.
