Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, wednesday in Abuja, said the idea of modular refineries in the Niger Delta was not designed to address the challenges of crude oil refining in the country.
The minister made the comment while answering questions from State House correspondents on the challenges posed by non-availability of refineries to refine crude oil at the end of weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) and consequently stop continuous dependence on imported petroleum products.
According to him, the idea of modular refineries was conceived to provide jobs in some communities in the Niger Delta where residents engage in illegal bunkering, insisting that modular refineries have no capacity to bridge existing supply gap.
“On modular refineries, modular wasn’t supposed to provide a sufficient solution to your product needs, modulars are on the average between 2,000 and 5,000 maybe 10,000 capacity most per refinery. Your consumption is about 630,000 barrels per day. That is not the essence of modular; what modular is supposed to do for us is provide work within some of these communities where people are busy doing illegal refining.
“It’s not meant to address the refining product gap we have in the country. We are hoping that those gaps will be covered by a mixture of the three or four refineries that government owns – currently, Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna and of course the Dangote refinery of 600 barrels,†he said.
He also disclosed the challenges hindering the operations of existing refineries, pointing out that when the government came on board, there was no money to fix the refineries as money had to be raised through collaboration with private sector.
“As a seasoned professional, I have given all the guardian that is required to fix the refineries. We came into a situation where we don’t have money to fix the refineries. We had to raise the money looking into the (private public partnership) PPP model. It has to go through a process. “The technical committee is headed by Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Obviously, they submitted their report to the board when they completed their work.
“So, from a governance and guidance sense, steering point of view, I think that steering is right on track from a management of the technical aspect of the contracting. That is something we would have to allow NNPC to handle. It is not the job of the ministry to superimpose. You got to let them do their work and do it efficiently,†he added.
Also answering a question on whether the sack of former United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson would not affect the agreement reached with him by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffery Onyeama, said it would not because the agreement was with the US and not with an individual.
