Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of state for Petroleum Resources has revealed that between $300 million and $500 million will be required to fix the four refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna for efficient fuel supply.
Kachikwu, also the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated this while interfacing with the Joint House of Representatives Standing Committee on Gas Resources, Petroleum (Downstream and Upstream) and Local Content, chaired by Hon. Victor Nwokolo, over the crisis trailing the re-organisation of the NNPC into seven main divisions and 20 sub-set companies.
At the meeting, the lawmakers and the minister resolved to work harmoniously towards the timely passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The minister acknowledged the existence of a communication gap between his office and the National Assembly, adding that the concerns of the lawmakers were legitimate.
He, however, added that the “unbundling (of NNPC) was used to qualify the sub-sets,” otherwise called “divisions”, and not separate companies as would have been applicable to the actual unbundling of the corporation as stipulated in the PIB.
He also assured that the restructuring of NNPC will help in achieving 16- to 18-months’ self-sufficiency in supply of petroleum products as well as the establishment of the modular type refineries by investors in the recent advert placed by the corporation.
He noted that when the 650,000 barrels/day refinery planned by Dangote Group comes on stream by 2020, it would boost domestic refining capacity, adding that the policy was to drive the oil marketers to invest in the industry going forward.
The minister further explained that 17 subsidiaries of NNPC have been identified and that additional four have been created, and that the administrative restructuring would help in generating more jobs and enhancing the profitability and efficiency of various sub-sets of the corporation, including gas and power, property, pipeline and refineries, among others.
Kachikwu added that 70 per cent of the N350 billion loss incurred by the corporation came from PPMC, and said that plans are underway to adopt Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the bid to boost the viability of the NNPC subsidiaries, including a shipping company and medical centres.
-Leadership
