Bayo Ojulari, the GCEO of the NNPCL, stated yesterday that Nigeria was losing between $300 million and $500 million each month while the Port Harcourt Refinery was in operation.
Ojulari made this statement during his meeting with the leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in his Abuja office.
He said, “When I resumed, one of the first priorities I focused on was the refinery. I did a quick review to see if we could quickly fix it. What I found is that we were losing between $300 million to $500 million on a monthly basis in the refinery. We were pumping about 50,000 barrels of crude to go into the refinery. What was coming out was less than 40 per cent equivalent of what was coming in.
“The first thing we said was rather than continue to lose, let’s quickly stop and look for a way to put this refinery into a sustainably profitable venture.
“The solution you are proposing (the NLNG model) is what we are working on. We’ve completed technical review of the three refineries, but it’s not just about technical. It’s also about commercial viability, it has to make money. Maybe not a lot, but it should not be making a loss.
“We’ve completed the commercial review for the Port Harcourt refinery and from that commercial review, we have come to the conclusion that the best way forward is to get a true professional refinery company to join us and co-operate with us.
“We’ve been having meetings with potential parties, but we need to find the pathway that will work. We’ve also realised that it was not in the best interest of Nigeria, not in the best interest of NNPCL, that we will continue to put money into a place where we do not have the full ability to fully operationalise. So, when we bring in partners, we can work with them.
“We are under attack. We will not budge to short-term pressure, as it will not be in the best interest of Nigerians. You cannot drive change without a price, and the transformation is tough.
“Tinubu did not put pressure on me to go and do the wrong thing. The baseline was to go and ensure that whatever we’re doing, going forward, sustainably works. There’s no need for us to pretend, there was no negative political pressure for NNPCL to just continue to run at a loss, so we decided to freeze on it, and we’ve been working astutely fine.
“My commitment is that when this refinery is reworking, everybody will be back to work but for now, we all need to co-operate and work together to ensure that whatever we put in place is sustainable.”
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