House: NNPC Has Disappointed Nigerians
From Reuben Buhari in Kaduna THISDAY | Feb.17.2010

House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (downstream), led by its Chairman, Hon. Clever Ikisikpo, yesterday told management of the Kaduna Refinery and officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that they have disappointed Nigerians due to their inability to ensure that the four refineries in Nigeria are working.

The committee members became so disappointed that they abruptly cut short their tour of the Kaduna Refinery after only visiting the Power Plant Unit, when it became clear that the refinery has not started refining any crude despite the 75 million dollar worth of Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) done on it.

At a point, it degenerated into a heated exchange amony Ikisikpo, the Managing Director of the Refinery, Mr. Bolanle Ayodele, the Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, Senator Sylvanus Engele, who came from the office of the minister of petroleum, and others, when the House members kept insisting that the refinery has nothing to show for all the money expended on the seventh TAM.

The chairman started expressing his displeasure while still in the conference room of the refinery after the speech of Ayodele.
“I am aware that the Kaduna Refinery TAM is taking about 75 million dollars, I am also aware that the 6th Warri TAM is taking about 151.7 millon dollars, the Port Harcourt 3rd TAM took about 137million dollars, all this are Nigerian money that has been pumped into TAM with respect to our refineries, but believe me, we cannot boast of anything at all and up to this time our importation rate is still 100 per cent. It is a worrisome problem and Nigerians are not happy.

“Take for instance, we are talking about scarcity of fuel, we have four refineries and everyday we see long queues and it is not good.
That is why we are not happy with the management of NNPC. We are not happy with all who are working with these four refineries.

“We have four refineries and they all have workers there that are not producing and Nigerians continue to pay salary to those who are working in those refineries. It is a big loss and all of us are not happy, ”Ikisikpo said.
Insisting that the refinery ought to have started working, the chairman lamented: “I am aware that the agreement for Kaduna refinery TAM was done on the 16th of April 2008.

“This refinery TAM is supposed to be completed by the end of March 2009 and this is 2010, over a year and we are still talking about TAM.” he noted, adding that the contractor, Robinson Onolehemhem from DKG-ITCC has to explain to them the reason for the delay in completing the Kaduna TAM.

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