The NNPC Ltd; the company in charge of Nigeria’s investments in the oil and gas sector which also manages the country’s three refineries/petrochemical companies gave Nigerians what I will refer to as a new year miracle gift, delivered at the tail end of 2024, precisely the 29th of December. Virtually nobody, except those involved in the rehabilitation, knew that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Co (WRPC) was going to be raised up from the dead like Jesus Christ did for Lazarus. It was a miracle, taking into essence the scepticism and cynicism of most Nigerians that nothing good can come out of the “Nazareth of NNPC” !
But Mele Kyari told everyone to come out to Warri, Delta State and see !
The WRPC worked last some long years ago, gulping millions of dollars in turn around maintenance (TAM) fees that nothing positive came out from. It was promises upon promises over the years while the NNPC of old and the Ministry of Petroleum resorted to importing fuel, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel and other derivatives of the crude oil that is daily being produced in Nigeria. Government after government were diverting the dollars earned from crude oil sales into the importation of fuel and other derivatives.
The petroleum import industry became a gargantuan cesspool of corruption swallowing the dividends from crude oil that should have been transferred to the building of cogent infrastructure, proper and effective working health care, good education and social security for Nigerians. A few crooks cornered up the fuel importation and subsidy earning, corruption infested rigmarole and raked in humongous sums running into billions of dollars into the deep of their greedy pockets that never gets satisfied just like Sheol.
Then came the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the subsidy removal wand of President Bola Tinubu that made a stop to the civil service form driven governance of NNPC. The President gave fillip to the corporate governance law as stipulated in the PIA with a marching order to the new NNPC headed by the Chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure and the Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, to make sure that the NNPC Ltd gets the three refineries into working condition.
The three refineries are the Port Harcourt Refinery (PHC) consisting of the old with a refining capacity of 60,000 Barrels per day (B/D) and the second phase with a capacity of 150,000 b/d. The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Co (WRPC) have a capacity of 125,000 b/d and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Co (KPRC) having a capacity of the same 150,000 b/d like the second phase of the Port Harcourt Refinery, all totalling 445,000 Barrels per Day capacity of refining Crude Oil into it’s more than thirteen derivative products such as Petrol, diesel (AGO), Kerosene, Naphtha etc.
Of course, this was too huge a capacity of refining to be left untended to by the NNPC to engage in petroleum importation. It is like the children of a butcher eating bones instead of the meat of the cow their father butchers on a daily basis. Nigerians were like orphans whose foster parents ate all the meats and fats of the bull killed by the orphans in a hunting game while giving the bones to the orphans as their share. Those in charge of our commonwealth were like profligates until the new Sheriff came into town and through the instrumentality of the law and brilliant political sagacity whipped all the renegades into compliance and gave Nigerians a new day and hope to look forward to.
With the coming onboard of the Warri Refinery at 60 percent capacity and the part of the Port Harcourt Refinery with 60,000 b/d capacity working at 70 percent, the refining capacity of the NNPC has shot up to 185,000 b/d refining capacity. If this is summed up with the 650,000 Barrels per Day capacity of the Dangote Refinery (DRL), then Nigeria presently have a working refining capacity of 835,000 Barrels per Day of Crude Oil !
This definitely is putting Nigeria firmly on the route to energy efficiency and security which definitely keys into President Tinubu’s agenda of Nigeria becoming a hub for petroleum products exportation in Africa.
With the way NNPC and it’s management is moving with the present rehabilitation of the three refineries and its completion, Nigeria will undoubtedly by year 2025 have a refining capacity of 1,095,000 (One Million, Ninety Five Thousand) Barrels per Day Crude Oil refining capacity. This calculation has not taken into consideration the refining capacity of other private refineries springing up in various parts of Nigeria.
No doubt, such a humongous refining capacity will help in catapulting the economic recovery of Nigeria faster than expected and help it receive the necessary foreign exchange needed as a blood line for its GDP growth.
At this juncture we need to look back at two things. First are those demonstrating for the removal of Kyari and the entire management of the NNPC before the recent revamping and start of the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries. What would have happened if the demand of the unversed protesters had been quickly heeded by the government ? That protest was just some few months ago. Will the total decapitation of the management of NNPC not have brought in a new team still trying to find their feet in the tapestry of the octopus variant of the myriad of investments engaged in by the NNPC ? Is it not for the good of Nigerians and our economy that President Tinubu have tarried in wielding the big stick against Mele Kyari and his team ? We should therefore praise the understanding and patience of Mr President in this regard. Such situations as this help in creating great statesmen that Nigeria is in dire need of.
Secondly is in pointing out the fact that the cabal sponsoring the removal of NNPC’s top management are those that are monopolists either gaining heavily from fuel importation but also trying to kill competition in the downstream of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
Thankfully, the opening of the two refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri and the streaming of the other ones to life in 2025 by the present management of the NNPC will forever put to sleep the cabal striving to put Nigeria’s economy under their vicious grip. The NNPC and Mr President have put to nothing the evil schemes of this tenacious cabal and we do hope that NNPC knows that eternal vigilance should be their watchword against the oil cabal.
In fact, the new year miracle present to Nigerians by NNPC in starting up the Warri Refinery has contributed to the competition started by the opening of the Port Harcourt Refinery and has contributed to the first of its kind Christmas season and New Year in which there’s no petrol scarcity but the price per litre of petrol have in fact plummeted from about ₦1,300 per litre to ₦965 per litre in most petrol outlets in the Federation. This clearly shows us that competition can really bring out a reduction in petrol pump price and we believe that if the Kaduna Refinery and the 150,000 capacity part of the Port Harcourt Refinery should come onboard, then the price of petrol will further reduce.
We hereby congratulate Mr President, NNPC and Nigerians in general on the coming into operation of the Warri Refinery and we pray that it all berths for our Country, people and our economy a prosperous new year.
We once more implore NNPC to up its ante. We are not there yet !
Thank you NNPCL for this New Year present.
Femi Oniyide Esq. Public Analyst. Concerned Citizens of Nigeria.
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