KADUNA - Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Allison-Madueke and NNPC GMD Austin Oniwon are to explain reason behind the abysmal performance of the Kaduna Refinery and Petro-chemical Company (KRPC) in spite of the N12 billion spent annually to maintain it.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Sen. Magnus Abe, asked for the explanation in Kaduna on Tuesday after inspecting the refinery with members of the committee while on oversight visit to the company.
Abe said: “this Committee is not happy with the state of the refinery in spite of the N12 billion spent annually to maintain the refinery”.
“As we leave here, we are going to engage with the Minister of Petroleum to find out why the importation of the crude for this other plant has stopped and stopped so completely.
“It is shocking that a refinery that was built less than 30 years ago, that had a daily projected capacity of 110, 000 barrels currently is running at less than 35 per cent of its total capacity,’’ he said.
He expressed the committee’s dissatisfaction over the fact that the plant meant to produce Asphalt had been converted into a drum making plant for oil companies.
“All that at a price that can barely be described as worth the amount of money that has been invested in the refinery.
“We are doing this at a time when we are spending more than N12 billion a year just to keep this place running, to pay the staff and all that. I feel that a lot needs to be done and it needs to be done quickly.’’
The committee also expressed dissatisfaction with the seeming old-fashioned nature of equipment at the company.
“ Nigerians expect quite more from our operations in the downstream sector and this committee will work with all relevant stakeholders to see that those expectations are met.
“We will engage the GMD, we will engage the minister to try to look for immediate solutions for some of the problems for this plant while we try to work with them for the total rehabilitation package.’’
Abe, who stressed the need for the NNPC to change its mode of operation, said that that would enable Nigerians to get value for their money.
“One of the things that baffles me is that the whole of Kaduna refinery as it is, you just collect products from PPMC, refine it and give it back to them.
“There is no real way of costing the operations, there is no real way of even assessing the productivity of your workers which has resulted to this type of plant just rusting away. ‘’
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