Again, the Port Harcourt Refinery missed the September timeline to roll out. This means that the frustration of Nigerians as regards democratizing the source of locally produced petrol, despite the coming up of Dangote refineries, which will start buying crude oil in Naira today, as against the dollar continues.
However, the non-coming up of Port Harcourt Refinery this time around did not arise from the point of view that the government officials are telling lies, or attempting to deceive Nigerians but from a purely technical point of view which was not envisaged at this critical period of the nation’s economic crisis blamed on price of petrol.
Narrating his frustration to Business Standards, a source said. “It would have been better for the NNPCL/ government to shift the timeline to December, perhaps, at that time a lot of the problems that are coming up now would have been resolved. The technical must be resolved completely before this refinery must come on stream”
He said the government and not NNPCL should review some of its policies that have negatively impacted all aspects of the economy.
According to other sources within the refinery, the contract was awarded at an exchange rate of N450/$1, but, today, the exchange rate has ballooned to N1,500, or even N1,600 to $1. A situation some of the workers in the refinery are saying has made it extremely difficult for many of the contractors to carry on with their jobs.
The payment of the jobs are based on milestone reached by each contractor. They are not paid all the money at once, a source said.
This has also placed an unexpected financial burden on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Federal Government as they may be forced to review the price.
They said the jobs are awarded in phases, meaning that one phase must be completed before you move to another phase. It is in –between these situations that the exchange rate has fluctuated several times. The resultant effect of this is that, it has become difficult to procure the needed materials for the job, a worker disclosed to Business Standards.
Other issues are the technical problems that propped up while testing running some sections of the plant. Some of the equipment that were assessed to be good enough to function, disappointed the handlers of the refinery. When the new equipment was installed and they tested them, the old equipment that was not changed was said to have collapsed, in the course of the exercise.
This development came up with another challenge that must be attended to compulsorily by the handlers. This made it expedient for them to order for new equipment that were not put into consideration earlier.
Meanwhile,the Technical Sub-Committee on Domestic Sales of Crude Oil in Local Currency, on Sunday, confirmed that the supply of crude in naira by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is to begin on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
On September 13, 2024, the committee announced that the Federal Executive Council under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu approved the sale of crude to local refineries in naira and the corresponding purchase of petroleum products in naira.
“From October 1, NNPC will commence the supply of about 385kbpd (385,000 barrels per day) of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid for in naira,” the committee had declared.
The Chairman of the Technical Sub-Committee is Zacch Adedeji, who doubles as Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
