The Senate has summoned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to appear before it to give account of the state of the nation’s four refineries.
The corporation is also expected to explain efforts made to ensure the functionality of private refineries that have been granted licences to operate. It is further to explain the state of other structures under it to the relevant Senate committees, as soon as they are set up.
Recall that Joseph Dawha, group managing director, NNPC, had while inspecting some petrol stations in Abuja, said the refinery in Port Harcourt would start refining petroleum products by the end of this month, and assured that all four refineries in the country would operate in optimal capacity as soon as turn- around maintenance was completed.
“Presently, the refineries are undergoing rehabilita- tion and we are undertaking what we call a new strategy to carry out the turnaround maintenance on them. Basically, what this means is that we are carrying out phased implementation of rehabilitation of the refineries. We are taking the refineries unit by unit and carrying out turnaround maintenance on them.
“Most of the refineries have advanced to a certain stage where they will be able to operate very soon. For example, the Port Har- court refinery, which has reached an advanced stage, will start receiving crude by end of this month and then of course will start contribut- ing to the available products in the country,” he said.
In the last two decades, there had been constant reconstruction of the nation’s refinery and pipelines without any visible results. But in a motion on Wednesday, Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East) noted that the spate of petrol tanker explosions had become worrisome and called for urgent attention.
Recalling the separate tanker incidents in Anambra and Lagos states, which claimed over 70 lives and destroyed over 150 properties, Ashafa said tankers lifting petroleum products in Nigeria had done grave damages to the nation’s roads, caused deaths and obstructed traffic.
The Senate, which observed a minute silence for the victims of the recent petrol tanker explosions in some part of Nigeria, said such measure will help forestall a re-occurrence of such preventable tragedies.
