Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has denied ever informing the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) last Tuesday that the fuel shortages will end between April 5 and 7.
Dr Kachikwu, who doubles as the GMD for Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, however assured that concrete measures are being put in place to ensure that the lingering fuel crisis end soon.
Below was what Kachikwu was quoted to have said when he met the Senate Committee on the Petroleum Downstream Sector early this week:
“Over the last 10 to 15 years, we have not done a serious, conclusive turn around maintenance of these refineries; the refineries are on average 30 to 40 years old,” he explained.
“We have also had issues of fraud. It got to a point where I started wondering whether as we repair this, somebody was going out there to destroy it, so that contracting will be done.”
“We expect that between now and about the 6th or 7th of April, the fuel queues will disappear, the Direct Sale-Direct Purchase system will begin and the foreign exchange allocation [of petrol] will see us smoothly through the track.”
NNPC according to Thisday reports, said that nine companies have submitted bids for the co-location of new refineries within the complexes of its three existing refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt.
This was made known in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Garuba Deen Mohammed, adding that the open bid exercise was a demonstration of the determination of the federal government and NNPC to increase the nation’s refining capacity from 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 650,000bpd.
It quoted its chief operating officer (COO) of refineries, Mr. Anibo Kragha as making this disclosure when the technical bids of the companies were opened in Abuja.
According to the statement, a technical evaluation committee has been set up to study the bids and announce winners as soon as possible.
It said the exercise was witnessed by representatives of the Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
Kragha, according to the statement, said the corporation was committed to boosting the nation’s refining capacity which in turn would end the perennial fuel shortages in the country.
He said: “The aim is to leverage on the existing facilities to fast track the take off of the refineries as soon as possible.”
