The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, has assured that the corporation would do all that was required to put the four refineries functioning at full capacity.
Kyari declared that management of the corporation was tired of making excuses about the nation’s ailing refineries.
The GMD who stated this on Saturday during his maiden working visit to the Port Harcourt Refinery Company, added that the corporation would ensure that major operations aimed at fixing the refinery will commence by January 2020.
This was just as he assured the company’s workers’ union that the national oil firm remained committed to total rehabilitation of the facility, adding that the present state of the refineries had brought shame to the NNPC and the country.
Kyari also said that it had become impossible for the corporation to have a conversation anywhere without the issue of the refinery being raised.
He said: “First and foremost, I have come here for a single reason, and that is to ensure that this refinery is put to work again. It must work. All of our refineries must work. It is either we fix it or we quench. If we don’t fix it we will all quench. We cannot afford not to fix them.
“We have to stop this circle of excuses, and the way to stop it is for all of us to work together to make sure that these refineries work.
“If this family cannot deliver this, there can be no conversation with anybody. Government is not going to talk to anybody, they are justifiably tired of us. The owners of this assets are tired of us. They are tired of our stories. We keep telling them we will repair it, we will fix it, we will do turn around maintenance.
“Since I came in 1991, I know that refinery rehabilitation has been an issue of concern to all citizens with talks about refinery.
“Turn around maintenance that will never deliver full value. The refineries have worked consistently below 90 per cent capacity since I joined the group. That is the truth. So we have to change this narrative. We need all of us to make it work. And my reasons for coming here is to see how far we are going with the work we are doing and to ensure that the rehabilitation is concluded by 2022 as scheduled.
“Whatever it takes we will start physical action in January. And I am here to confirm all the schedules that the Chief Operating Officer (COO) has promised to deliver with his team. And I am not in doubt. I am just coming here to give you more confidence that we are behind you. We are aligning with you to deliver on that singular task of fixing these refineries
“On behalf of the corporation, we have to get this refinery to work that’s the long and short of it. For all of us it’s either it works or we perish.”
He also told the union members that without the refinery working, enhanced compensation discussions would become hard to handle.
Kyari further expressed optimism that the COO in charge of the facility and his team would deliver on the project.
“I’m not in doubt. I want to give you full assurance that we are behind you and we will take this pain off the neck of our company and country,” he added.
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