The furore generated by the announcement by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to carry out another Turn Around Maintenance of the Port Harcourt refineries costing a whopping $1.5 billion is yet to settle weeks after it was made.
Nigerians who spoke on the issue opined, “it is too little, too late”, for a government that promised one refinery every year when it was campaigning for the 2015 election. They note that the four crude oil refineries have been grounded for years with successive governments resorting to importation in order to meet domestic needs. They observed that it took President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) six years to realise the need for functional refineries in order to curb unmitigated importation of a product that is readily available in abundant quantity.
A Lagos based journalist, Azeez Agbaje Folorunso, captures the mode of some when he said: “this is preposterous. How can you hope to spend that humongous amount on a moribund refinery. A refinery built many years ago has become anachronistic. It is a waste of time and resources trying to wake a dead horse. Whatever happens to modular refineries promised by this government? Whatever happens to building a completely new refineries with that money rather than waste such huge figure on an outdated antiquity?I think we are not serious in this country”.
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Also reacting via his twitter handle, @atiku, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar said the sum approved for the project is suspicious.
He argued that a more valuable refinery of the same size as that of Port Harcourt was sold for less by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), asking if due diligence was performed before the approval of the fund.
“Moreover, the cost appears prohibitive. Too prohibitive, especially as Shell Petroleum Development Company last year sold its Martinez Refinery in California, USA, which is of a similar size as the Port Harcourt refinery, for $1.2 billion. We must bear in mind that the Shell Martinez Refinery is more profitable than the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Nigerians are asking why it is apposite to conduct a TAM with such huge amount when Dangote Refinery will be on board in about a year. The refinery will produce 650, 000b/p, more than enough to take care of our domestic consumption.
One can only hope this is not another avenue for money for the boys.
