State of the Refineries: Rep summon NNPC’s Contractor

JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the State of the Refineries on Friday summoned the Managing Director of Technimo Nigeria Limited a major contractor of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC over the state of the nation’s refineries.

At an investigative hearing on the state of the refineries where the NNPC and its contactors were invited and grilled by the Ad-hoc Committee, the lawmakers were furious over the non appearance of the company official who was invited

The Committee Chairman Hon.Ganiyu Johnson had invited the Group Managing Director of NNPC Mele Kyari, top management staff of Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd and the management of Technimo Nigeria Limited over their operations in the oil facilities

But the company which was awarded a Turn Around Maintenance TAM contract for the rehabilitation of two refineries in Port Harcourt was conspicuously absent at the hearing.

A member of the probe panel Hon. Ibrahim Isiaka who expressed displeasure with the absence of the company official at the hearing said that the company should be informed that the committee is not constituted to play.

He also said that the NNPC should provide all the necessary documents on the technical survey done on the refineries before they award of any contract on the maintenance of the Kaduna and Warri refineries

He queries the NNPC on its modalities for contact award noting that the contract awarded to Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd in one of the oil facilities was done without due process of competitive bidding.

Other members of the House probe panel as Hon. Dagomie Abiante (Rivers,PDP) queried the NNPC on why it will take up to thirty-two months to fix the refineries.

Another Committee member Hon. Musa Baggos (Plateau, PDP) queried why the NNPC would spend up to 1 million Euros on the rehabilitation of the Kaduna refinery whereas the agency cannot send crude oil for refining due to ruptured pipelines.

In his response to the queries, the General Manager Refineries and Petrochemicals of NNPC Mr Mustapha Yakubu who represented the GMD said that the agency did a technical survey of the two refineries on Port Harcourt before awarding the contract to the contractor.

He told the House Ad-hoc Committee that the agency had gotten the Federal Executive Council FEC approval for the award of the contract for the fixing of the refineries.

He further stated that the total contact sum for the fixing the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt was $99 billion including Value Added Tax.

He however said that the agency had not awarded any contract on the Kaduna and Warri refineries but they had done the technical survey of the facilities.

He told the Committee that the management of the Port Harcourt Refineries and Petrochemicals Company Limited is working towards the completion of the rehabilitation work on it in April 2023.

But the Committee Chairman and his colleagues who were not satisfied with the responses demanded for the technical survey documents from the NNPC  to be submitted unfailingly on Tuesday June 7, 2022.

The lawmakers also summoned the Managing Director of Technimo Nigeria Limited a contractor to the NNPC to appear unfailingly before the probe panel on Thursday June 9, 2022 at 11.00 am.

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