IPMAN, FG Disagree Over Port Harcourt Refinery Completion Date

The Independent Petrol Marketers Association of Nigeria has faulted the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, over his assurance on the completion of the Port Harcourt refinery.

Sylva had during a seminar recently in Abuja, said the refinery would be ready before the end of the second quarter of this year.

But the IPMAN Chairman for Rivers State, Dr. Joseph Obele, said the assurances of the minister were one too many without result. Obele said this in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

While noting that it was not the first time the minister was making such a promise, the union leader said it was unfortunate he had failed to deliver any of the promises, noting that the latest promise would not be kept.

He stated that the Federal Government was not committed to fixing the refineries and seeing it function.

According to him, Nigeria is the only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries without a functional refinery.

The statement read in part, “The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources did promise Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations by December 2022, but he failed. Secondly, he promised the first quarter of 2023, but he failed. Now he is saying second quarter of 2023, he will definitely fail. They are not committed to seeing the refinery functional. They are comfortable importing of the international market because they have shares in those foreign refineries.

“It will take a corrupt-free government to make our refineries functional, then and only the consistent fuel scarcity will be a thing of the past and Nigerians will buy fuel less than #100 per liter.”