By ElizabethChukwuma
Barely one month after the official announcement that former President Muhammadu Buhari had died in a London Hospital, United Kingdom, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, as part of its oversight function, has lunched a probe into the issues affecting the nation’s downstream oil sector.
Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, Chairman of the Committee, who is worried that the North American country of the United States, US, $20 billion, refinery with a processing capacity of 650,000 per day has been functioning since 2024, without any technical problem but the Nigerian three refineries located in Port Harcourt and Warri had been shut, a few weeks they had had resumed production, late last year.
The late Buhari’s Administration, had spent billions of US dollars and even additional millions of dollars on the Turn Around Maintenance of the refineries, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which had remained non-operational till date. There are indications that the Buhari’s Administration and the incumbent President Tinubu, who had succeeded him had made an investment of over US$18 billion the refineries that are not functioning optimally.
Take for instance, the Nigerian Government had spent had spent US $1.5 billion, for the TAM, 2011 and an additional $1.48 billion, in 2021, barely three years, before the late Katsina state born Nigerian President vacated office in May 29, 20233, to pave way for the incumbent President Tinubu to take over.
Until, the House Committee took the bold initiative to probe the country’s countries, the Senate in 2023, had initiated moves to probe the expenditure of N11.35 trillion on the TAM, of the countries between 2010 and 2023 but failed to do so.
Prior to the House Committee’s plans to probe the Downstream sector of the nation’s Petroleum Resources, the Economic and Financial Commission, under the Chairmanship of Olanipekun Olukoyede, had arrested one Umar Isa, Chief Financial Officer, CFO, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, now baptized Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, over an alleged US$7.2 billion fraud, connected to the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, with a processing capacity of 450,000 b/d.
The anti-graft agency was said to have arrested and detained Jimmoh Olasunkanmi, ex-Managing Director, Warri refinery, Delta state, Tunde Bakare, another, Chief Executive Officer, CEO , of the Warri refinery, Adamu Dikko and Monday Onoja, both former CEOs of the Port Harcourt Refining Company.
The information making the rounds was that Hon. Ugochinyere, the Chairman of the House Committee, of the country’s Petroleum Resources, Downstream and his Committee members, over the last two years have not been happy that after the media hype that had greeted the return of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries in south eastern Nigeria, to resume production of Premium Motor Spirit, popular, currently being imported from offshore refineries abroad and other petroleum products, the refineries had been shut down again, leaving the Dangote refinery, which is a private investment to dominate the nation’s downstream sector.
N aggrieved Hon. Ugochinyere, had said that if anybody is found to have been engaged in abrupt activities to disrupt the Government owned refineries, which operations had been very disappointing over the years, ‘’the Law should be allowed to take its full course’’ as a deterrence to others who may want to perpetuate such fraud in future.
The House Committee on Downstream, which is determined to get to the root why the Nigerian refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, have been performing below expectation over the years, were said to have vowed to extend their investigation to finding out the bottlenecks hindering the procurement and supplies of Crude to the local and modular refineries.
There are indications the local refineries may have been working in bits and fits because NNPC, Shell Petroleum Development and other crude oil producing companies, had starved the companies of crude for processing, forcing the firms to travel to Switzerland to negotiate obtaining crude locally.
The House Committee Chairman major worries were that the Companies handling the TAM, of the Nigeria refineries are reputable the world over. Take for instance, for the TAM, of the 210,000 Port Harcourt refinery, comprising of the 60,000 old plant and the new 150,000 refinery, the parent company, NNPCL, had engaged several contractors at various stages of the project.
Maire Technimont was said to have been involved in the initial review of the refinery complex contract, While, Eni,an thalian, oil production Company, was appointed the technical advisor. Chrome Consortium, which was said to have included RL and Universal Montaj Darzeu, was awarded the actual TAM, contract of the refinery, that had had remained a drainpipe to the country’s scarce foreign exchange resources.
The 125,000b/d, Warri refinery, TAM, contract was said to have been handled by Messrs Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited, which was said to have been executed in three phases, over a period of 77 months but the contractor had failed to meet the country’s expectation as Nigeria remains an exporter of Petroleum products. Dawoo Engineering and Construction Nigeria Limited, an Asian country of South Korea Engineering firm, was said to have won the US $586 million, contract for ‘’the Quick -fix repairs for the Kaduna-refinery and Petrochemical plant , KRPC, which it is struggling to fix since 2022 because the then Nigerian president do not have the political muscle to control and discipline them.
