Reps To Invite Ministers, NNPC, Others In Refineries, Fuel Consumption Probe

The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries in Nigeria is billed to invite top Federal Government officials, regulators, marketers, workers’ unions, oil companies, and other stakeholders in the petroleum sector in its investigation of the inability of the country to refine its crude oil.

According to reliable sources in the committee, those who have been penciled down to appear before the committee include: the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.

Also on the list are the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; Auditor-General of the Federation, Adolphus Aghughu; and the Director-General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.

Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited, Dangote Refinery, and all licensed modular refineries, among others, will also appear before the panel.

The committee had begun an investigation of the current state of the country’s four refineries and the amounts spent on the ‘Turn-Around Maintenance’ of the national assets.

The Chairman of the committee, Ganiyu Johnson, after the inauguration of the panel on February 3, 2022, had disclosed that stakeholders in the petroleum sector in both the public and private sectors would soon begin to appear before the lawmakers.

The House had on January 27, 2022, adopted two motions to institutionalise an earlier order by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, for an investigation of the current state of Nigeria’s four refineries and the actual volume of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, being consumed by the country daily.

Gbajabiamila had earlier ordered separate probes into the issues, setting up ad hoc committees to carry out the tasks.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had said it spent N100bn on refineries’ rehabilitation in 2021 and that funds were pumped into revamping the facilities on a monthly basis last year.

It disclosed this in a report on the funding performance of the oil firm from January to December 2021, which was seen in Abuja on Sunday.

Although no refinery was mentioned in the report, Nigeria’s refineries had been under the management of NNPC, as the rehabilitation of one of the facilities, Port Harcourt Refining Company, had been ongoing.

The other refineries under the NNPC’s management include the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, as well as the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.

In the NNPC’s latest funding performance report, the firm stated that N8.33bn was spent monthly for a period of 12 months beginning from January to December 2021 on refinery rehabilitation.