The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has stated that it intends to restore three refineries in order to decrease fuel scarcity and boost dependence on natural gas.
This was revealed on Wednesday, in Abuja at a sensitization workshop with The Natives, a civil society organisation, by the company’s Executive Vice President, Danladi Inuwa.
He added that the Warri and Kaduna stations have been contracted for prompt repair and that the Port-Harcourt refinery will begin operations by the second quarter of 2023.
The programme titled, “Understanding our national oil company post-Petroleum Industry Act” was aimed at enlightening the public and moving citizens’ involvement from protests to participation in the decision-making process of the profit-oriented company.
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Olalekan Edwards, the NNPC president, noted that the narrative needed to shift from protests to participation in important choices. He expressed worries about citizen involvement in influencing critical project decisions in host communities.
He said, “The accurate picture here is we want to change the narrative from protest to participation.
“We most times address them at the aftereffect of misapplication of funds or projects that are not in developmental the communities, so we have decided to rise up. If you go to different host communities, you will hear issues that boil down to their development.
“We are placing a demand, we want to begin to participate in our affairs rather than just protest”, he argued.
Responding, the NNPC Vice president explained that by becoming a limited liability company, the company has been able to invest in infrastructure and initiate various corporate responsibility initiatives to spur development while ensuring energy security.
He said, “We have the mandate to ensure energy security for the nation. We are focusing on monetising our gas which is evident in some of the key projects like the AKK project. This is all done to ensure NNPC is fulfilling its mandate and spurring development.
“We are working to revamp our refineries, for instance, the Port-Harcourt refinery will be functioning by the second quarter of 2023, the area five of the refinery will be functioning. Also, Warri and Kaduna refineries will have been signed on a quick rehabilitation to refine our petroleum product in the country.”
