Atiku Faults NNPCL Planned Private Sector Operatorship of Port Harcourt Refinery

•Argues plant ought to  have been  privatised before rehabilitation

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former vice-president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubukar, has faulted plan by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for a third party to manage the Port Harcourt Refinery after its rehabilitation.

Atiku, argued that the federal government  ought to  have privatised the  refinery instead of commencing the rehabilitation.

In a statement yesterday, posted  on his verified  X handle, Atiku said he had always supported and had the agenda to privatise state-owned refineries.

He explained that to avoid issues of debt, the federal government through the NNPCL ought to have  resolved to privatise the operations of Port Harcourt refinery rather than incur huge debt in its rehabilitation.

Atiku argued: “I have always advocated for far-reaching reforms to reposition Nigeria’s oil sector and, indeed, other sectors of our economy.

“In particular, I had consistently called on the Buhari’s administration to break its monopoly in all infrastructure sectors, including the refineries, and give investors, both foreign and domestic, a larger role in funding and management.

“My position has been well laid out in The Atiku Plan (2018) and My Covenant With Nigerians (2022). But our suggestions fell on deaf ears. First, they refused to privatise the refineries. They left them idle for years while paying humongous staff salaries.

“Then, they contracted a loan of $1.5 billion for rehabilitation. Now, the current administration wants to turn the rehabilitated refinery to private concerns for operation and maintenance!

“Without prejudice to the terms of the agreement between the NNPC and the private operators, it would undoubtedly have been better if the NNPC had sold the refinery, pre-rehabilitation, to avoid the burden of debt.”

The former vice president urged the NNPCL to explain to Nigerians “what benefits its newly discovered approach to privatisation will confer on Nigeria and Nigerians”.

On March 17, 2021, the federal government had approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers state.

Speaking after a meeting, former Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, had said the rehabilitation would be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months. He had said the contract would be awarded to Tecnimont SPA, an Italian company.

Two months later, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation now NNPC Limited, said it had commenced the rehabilitation of the refinery.

Now under the administration of President Bola Tinubu, the NNPCL, on December 21, 2023, said it had completed the mechanical phase of the turnaround maintenance at the plant, adding that operations would commence before the end of the year.

Prior to this, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, during an inspection tour of the facility in August 2023, had assured of the commencement of operations by December of the same year.

But, on January 15, 2024, the national oil company announced that it was seeking credible operations and maintenance (O&M) companies to operate and maintain the Port Harcourt Refining Company.