From DENNIS MERNYI, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has described the recent report on its alleged expenditure on Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of local refineries as deliberate distortion of facts and figures about its operations by desperate vote-seeking politicians.
NNPC in a statement in Abuja Tuesday, signed by its spokesman, Ohi Alegbe, noted that as a public entity with fiduciary responsibility to the government and people of Nigeria, the NNPC was focused on its mandate and would not be distracted by the spate of politically inspired polemics against its operations.
Specifically, Alegbe described as fiction the recent report credited to some nondescript civil society organisations, fired by an overheated imagination, alleging that the NNPC has committed N152 billion to execute the TAM of four refineries between 2011 to 2013.
He explained that though a decision was taken in 2011 to rehabilitate all refineries using the Original Refinery Builder (ORB) of each of the refineries, the corporation made a recourse to a new strategy after the ORBs declined participation and nominated some partners in their stead who came up with outrageously unfavourable terms.
“The nominated partners, as sole bidders came up with humongous price offers after two years of thorough and exhaustive scope of work definition and price negotiations. The proxies were also unwilling to provide post-rehabilitation performance guarantees,” the NNPC said.
It noted that the new arrangement, which kicked off in October 2014, entails phased and simultaneous rehabilitation of all refineries using in-house and locally available resources in line with the spirit and letters of the Nigerian Content Law.
The strategy also embraces the direct use of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) representatives to effect major equipment overhaul and rehabilitation.
The NNPC said it is projected that the new strategy would create 70 per cent reduction in costs, which would help in mitigating the financing challenges of NNPC visa-a-vis refinery rehabilitation.
“The phased rehabilitation programme started in October of 2014, after the required funding stream was established, and will last for 18 months,” noted the corporation.
It hinted that over 60 per cent of TAM materials have been delivered to Port Harcourt Refinery and installation of such equipment and parts is in progress while material orders and deliveries to Kaduna and Warri refineries are substantial and sufficient to operate the production process.
Source : SunOnline