Refineries Rehabilitation Gulped N100bn In 2021 – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has said it spent N100 billion on rehabilitation of refineries in 2021, noting that the funds were pumped into revamping the facilities on a monthly basis.
This was disclosed in a report on the funding performance of the oil firm from January to December, 2021.
The report, which did not mention any particular refinery, noted that all Nigeria’s refineries have been managed by the NNPC, and that rehabilitation work on the Port Harcourt Refining Company, had been ongoing.
Other refineries under the NNPC’s management include the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, as well as the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.
In the NNPC’s latest funding performance report, the firm stated that N8.33billion was spent monthly for a period of 12 months beginning from January to December 2021 on refinery rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has been making moves to get the country’s refineries back on stream, as Nigeria currently imports the bulk of its refined petroleum products, resulting in outrageous spending by the NNPC, which is the sole importer of petrol into the country.
According to The Tide’s source, the Federal Government had processed $98million and N17.2billion as part payments for the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refining Company.
The report stated that the government had made an initial payment of $194million, being the 15 per cent advance payment required for the rehabilitation of the facility, to Tecnimont SpA of Italy, according to the financial status update of the rehabilitation of PHRC.
The project was financed by an equity contribution by its sponsor and loan by lenders (AfreximBank).
According to the report, the Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation, and Commissioning contract price remained at $1.397billion lump sum with $162million as provisional sum, bringing the total project cost to $1.559billion, as approved by the Federal Executive Council.
The Federal Executive Council approved the contract for the EPCIC of the Port Harcourt refinery on March 17, 2021, and work on the facility commenced last year.
The council approved the award of the PHRC EPCIC contract to Tecnimont in March, and the contract agreement was signed on April 6, 2021, as the report, seen on Friday, indicated that additional funds had been processed to ensure the continued rehabilitation of the plant.