Business

Refineries: Reps Call For Forensic Audit Of N11.34trn Spent On Rehabilitation

Published

2 years ago

June 7, 2023

Editor

The House of Representatives has demanded forensic audit of all rehabilitation projects at Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

The demand followed the consideration of the recommendations of a report by its ad-hoc committee on the state of refineries and the need to ascertain the actual daily consumption of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol, in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that the consideration of the report was deferred when presented last week because the chairman of the committee of the whole and deputy speaker, Ahmed Idris-Wase, last week told the committee chaired by Ganiyu Johnson to give clear cut recommendations based on its specific mandate.

Re-presenting the report at plenary, yesterday, Johnson said the findings of the committee revealed that the rehabilitation of the three refineries had cost the nation N11.35 trillion in 13 years, beginning from 2010.

He said the refineries became unproductive from 2010, making a range of losses, with Port Harcourt put at 7.6 per cent losses to the tune of N132.52 billion from 2012; Warri at 6 per cent losses amounting to N111.37 billion from 2014 and Kaduna at 10 per cent losses to the tune of N122.62 billion from 2014.

The report stated that from 2010 to 2019, the refineries performed sub-optimally, with an annual combined capacity of less than 30 per cent.

According to the report, the NNPC obtained an executive approval and shutdown the refineries for comprehensive rehabilitation to restore the plants to a maximum of 90 per cent utilisation.

The report said total losses from the non-functional refineries since 2010 were placed at N366.52 billion, while the total cost of operations and running them from 2010–2020 stood at N4.80 trillion.

It further indicated that subsidy payments totalling N5.9 trillion was made from 2010 to 2020.

The committee, however, recommended that the NNPCL fast tracked the rehabilitation programme of the refineries empowered by the legislative intent for a deregulated business environment and restore the refineries to a minimum 90 per cent nameplate capacity utilisation.

Vanguard reports that the committee also recommended that NNPCL and the contractor (Tecnimont SPA of Italy) be urged to ensure that phase one of the rehabilitation works in Refinery Area 5 of the Old Port Harcourt Refinery, OPHR, with the processing capacity of 60,000 barrels per day earlier expected to be restored to 54,000 barrels per day of processing capacity representing 90 per cent capacity utilization by March, 2023, should unfailingly meet the new target date of September, 2023.

It asked that a bank (names withheld) refund to the nation the total sum of US$438,012.44 paid them as retainer fees from 2017-2018 as the financing advisory contract for the rehabilitation of the three refineries was not successful and was suspended due to the financing consortia not reaching agreeable terms for the transaction with the NNPC.

Other recommendations include “that the NNPCL and the Contractor (Tecnimont SPA of Italy) be further urged to ensure that phase two of the rehabilitation works in Refinery Areas 1&2 of the New Port Harcourt Refinery (NPHR), with an installed capacity of 150,000 barrels per day be restored to the estimated processing capacity of 135,000 barrels per day.”
VANGUARD

Business

Naira Appreciates Massively Against US Dollar In The Black Market, Highest In 15 Months

Published

56 minutes ago

September 25, 2025

Editor

The naira appreciated massively against the United States dollar at the parallel foreign exchange market.

Abubakar Alhasan, a Bureau De Change operator in Wuse Zone, Abuja, told DAILY POST that the Naira strengthened significantly to N1,490 per dollar on Wednesday, up from N1,520 on Tuesday.

“We buy at N1480 and sell at N1490 on Wednesday due to lower FX demand,” Alhasan confirmed to newsmen.

This means that the Naira gained N30 against the dollar on a day-to-day basis.

The last time they were exchanged at this level in the black market was in June 2024.

Meanwhile, at the official market, it dropped marginally by N1.19 to N1,488.56 per dollar on Wednesday, down from N1,487.37, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Analysing the trend at both markets, the difference between official and parallel markets has shrunk to 1.44.

Recall that on Tuesday, the Naira appreciated across official and parallel foreign exchange markets upon an interest rate cut by the apex bank by 50 basis points to 27 per cent.

Business

Why We Rejected Govt’s Plan To Sell Assets – PENGASSAN President

Published

3 hours ago

September 25, 2025

Editor

The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, has revealed the reasons oil unions rejected the government’s plan to sell assets.

Osifo said that the plan will be injurious to the Nigerian economy in the long run.

He made this statement on Wednesday, while responding to questions in an interview on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television.

“What informed our position in this is that as PENGASSAN and NUPENG, we represent the workforce of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

“So it’s our responsibility first to our members to ensure that their jobs are protected and to ensure that their welfare is enhanced.

“Secondly, our members live in a country called Nigeria. Nigeria must survive and strive before our members will be able to survive.

“So we feel the move to go in this direction will not just affect the plights of our members but is injurious to Nigeria’s economy in the long run.

“The oil unions’ rejection of this plan is to protect Nigeria’s economy and the welfare of its members.

“This decision will certainly boomerang, revenue will plummet, and it will lead to a lot of other issues,” Osifo said.

Business

Okonjo-Iweala Reveals How Nigeria Can Dominate AfCFTA

Published

2 days ago

September 23, 2025

Editor

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says Nigeria has what it takes to lead Africa’s new era of trade if it tackles high logistics costs, develops efficient payment systems, and invests in value addition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was speaking on the sidelines of the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, said Nigeria and other African economies must speed up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, and build stronger infrastructure to unlock billions of dollars in opportunities in manufacturing, services, and digital trade.

“The AfCFTA is a great step, but Africa trades only about 15–20 percent within itself — far below the European Union, EU’s 60 percent. We (Nigeria) need to speed up implementation so Africans trade more with each other.

“Take Lesotho: it exports around $200 million worth of textiles (jeans, etc.) to the U.S. — about 10 percent of its GDP — while Africa imports $7 billion of similar goods. Why not absorb Lesotho’s products within Africa? To unlock intra-African trade, we (Nigeria) need efficient payment systems (Afreximbank and others are working on this), better infrastructure and lower trade costs. It shouldn’t take longer to ship goods from Cape Town to Lagos than from China to Lagos.

“With critical minerals, energy, and new supply chains, plus opportunities in services and digital trade, there’s huge potential — if we invest in connectivity and implementation,” she said.

The former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance also cautioned that negative narratives about global commerce risk overshadowing recent successes achieved through multilateral cooperation.