Refinery revamp: NNPC inaugurates 8 committees to meet 2019 target

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has inaugurated eight committees in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate to rehabilitate the nation’s three refineries.

Mr Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division said this in a statement he released in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to him, the mandate is to return the refineries to their nameplate capacities by 2019.

Ughamadu said that the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr Maikanti Baru, inaugurated the committees.

He quoted Baru as calling on members of the committees to deploy “out of the box solutions” the refineries to their good old days of top class performance.

”Dr Baru said he’s convinced that the selected teams would give the necessary direction toward returning the refineries to their optimal levels of performance,” Ughamadu said.

Baru urged the committees to deliver within schedule, adding that time was of the essence.

The NNPC boss said the setting of the committees was for him to prove that the corporation could fully run the refineries.

He said the target for the refineries rehabilitation was to return them to 90 per cent capacity utilisation before the end of 2019.

Baru, however, stressed that with more commitment from the committees, 100 per cent capacity utilisation was achievable.

The Chief Operating Officer, Refineries and Petrochemicals, Mr Anibor Kragha, said that for the first time in 20 years, there was both the political will and the economic climate to ensure effective retrofitting of the refineries.

Retrofitting refers to the addition of new technology or features to old system with a view to improving efficiency.

Kragha said that over 28 Expressions of Interest had been received so far for the financing of the rehabilitation project, adding that the goal was to get more by the end of the year.

He promised that the nation would not suffer financially as a result of the project, assuring that the approved financial model would guarantee payment to partners only from incremental profits.

Speaking on behalf of the committees, the Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation, Mr Isiaka Abdulrazaq, expressed confidence in every member of the committees to deliver on their various tasks.

Ughamadu said that the committees inaugurated for the rehabilitation of the refineries would be headed by a Steering Committee, chaired by Baru.

Other Committees are: Rehabilitation; Stakeholder Management; Financing; Legal; Procurement; Pipeline and Crude Oil Supply and Security as well as Staffing and Succession Planning.