The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has vowed to stop the era where the country depended on refined petroleum products for domestic consumption....CONTINUE READING
The GCEO said this on Thursday at the launch of two books: Dynamics of Petroleum Products Marketing, the Insight into Crude Oil Marketing and AptFuel Technology by the Coordinator Oil, Gas and Energy Marketing, University of Abuja Business School, Professor Billy Okoye at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Kyari, who was the chairman of the occasion, also vowed that the State-owned company will never declare loss to Nigerians
The GCEO also spoke on the efforts the company is making to revive the Portharcourt Refinery and Petrochemical Company.
The refinery has the capacity to refine 210,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Already, the mechanical phase of the project has been completed, which would allow it to refine 60,000 barrels of crude oil for the Nigerian market.
By the end of 2024, the refinery will produce in full capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, the NNPCL said last year.
The NNPCL also has a 20 per cent share of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery in Lagos. This would compel the refinery to also focus on the Nigerian market.
Kyari said, “We recommend this book to the international community so that they can learn what Nigeria has passed through, the struggle and the turbulence that the past and present management of the NNPC has been going through just to keep the vehicles of Nigerians on the road.
“It is not an easy task but a task that must be done and which has been obligated upon that company, especially now that the Petroleum Industry Act has come to play. Whether it was done at profit or loss in the past was nobody’s business.
“But the Act has simply made it possible now that we can do it but on the account of the Federation. So, we can never declare loss to Nigerians again.
“We have moved from a loss-making company to profitability. Six months when we took over, we broke even, and by the end of the year, we declared profit. We moved a company that literally and fundermentally focused on upstream development to refining and downstream marketing.
“Nigerians had alluded to the inefficiencies of the past, especially the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s inability to publish its account for more a decade.”
Another inefficiency the GCEO alluded to was where the country relied on the importation of petroleum products while billions of foreign exchange were spent.
Kyari noted, “The chief host has alluded to the inefficiencies of the past where we were literally sending crude outside and importing PMS.
” That trajectory will change this year. Nigerians will not be buying Petroleum products imported or refined abroad, but petroleum products refined locally. This is a commitment that the NNPC GCEO and the management have made to Nigerians, and we are equal to the task.”
Kyari encouraged industrial experts to emulate the ingenuity of Prof Okoye.
According to him, it is important for Nigerians to try the AtFuel Technology which provides users adequate information about the closet petroleum stations with the products they need.
