The Senate on Thursday agreed to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over the $396m expended on Turn-Around Maintenance of refineries in the country between 2013 and 2015.
The red chamber also mandated the committees on Petroleum Downstream, Upstream, and Gas to carry out a holistic investigation on the expenditure incurred by the Federal Government, within the period under consideration.
The Senate panels were also mandated to assess the current state of the refineries as well as convoke a stakeholders conference with the aim of finding ways to revamp them.
The decision to investigate spendings on the maintenance of refineries by the Corporation was reached after consideration of a motion brought to the floor by Senator Yusuf Yusuf.
The Senator noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has four refineries: two in Port-Harcourt and one each in Kaduna and Warri.
According to him, the refineries were established to adequately supply and serve the needs of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Premium Motor Spirit, Dual Purpose Kerosene, Automotive Gas Oil, Low Pour Fuel Oil, High Pour Fuel Oil and Aviation Turbine Kerosene for both local consumption and exports.
He said, “The country through the NNPC has in the past 25 years, spent billions of US dollars in Turn-Around Maintenance of the refineries, the latest being over $396m spent between 2013 and 2015 without meaningful result.
“The refineries have remained in the moribund state in the last 15-20 years and is almost reaching total collapse due to lack of proposer maintenance of the facilities with a poor average capacity utilization hovering between fifteen per cent and twenty-five per cent per annum.
“Despite the huge spending on turn-around Maintenance of refineries, NNPC recently announced a cumulative loss of N123.25 bn in 10 months (January to October 2019).
“This has put the total revenue of facilities at N68.82 bn, while total expenses incurred were N192.1bn within the same period.
“Such huge wastage and slippages amidst the nation’s tight economy, if not addressed, may lead the country back to recession.”
