The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, said on Friday the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery would be completed by November 2023.
Kyari stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee headed by Ganiyu Johnson in Abuja.
The NNPC chief, who was represented at the meeting by the company’s General Manager in charge of Refineries and Petrochemicals, Mustapha Yakubu, said the rehabilitation work which commenced on May 6, 2021 had attained 30 per cent completion level.
He said while part of the project would be delivered within 32 months, the entire project was expected to be completed within 42 months.
Kyari, who insisted that the contract for the survey of the refineries followed due process, said the contracts for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna Refineries had not been awarded.
A representative of Saipem Engineering Company, who responded to questions from the committee on the project, said an additional sum of £2.3 million was approved for the inspection of both Warri and Kaduna refineries.
The committee, therefore, requested for Federal Executive Council’s approval of $1.5 billion for Port Harcourt refinery, $5.321 million for various expenditures incurred for comprehensive technical plants on July 26, 2017 and another $55 million paid on the same day.
The lawmakers alleged that the contract was awarded to Saipem without due diligence, adding that the contract was not subjected to competitive bidding.
They also directed NNPC management to recourse back to the committee before awarding the contract for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries since the pipelines are in bad shape.