CSOs knock NNPC over Warri refinery, plan 2 million man match in Abuja

No fewer than 100 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have appended their signatures to mobilise their members and shut down the corporate headquarters of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), for failing to activate the Warri refinery. The Coalition requested that the NNPCL and its agencies should come out and explain to Nigerians how the […]

No fewer than 100 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have appended their signatures to mobilise their members and shut down the corporate headquarters of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), for failing to activate the Warri refinery.

The Coalition requested that the NNPCL and its agencies should come out and explain to Nigerians how the 3 billion dollars spent on rehabilitation and activation of the Warri Refinery was spent.

Coming under the umbrella of Coalition of Civil Society Groups against Corruption in Energy Sector, the group urged Nigerians to prepare for the worst, as there are no intentions of rehabilitating and putting into operations, the refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.

Engr. Efe Irabor, the Spokesperson for the CSOs, via a statement on Tuesday, recalled how the NNPCL moved to frustrate the Dangote refinery and the resultant effect on the market force, saying, if it was allowed to operate with its good intentions, and crude was willingly sold to it, the Dangote refinery would have crashed the fuel price and made life bearable for the masses.

“You will recall that sometime June, the Dangote Refinery said oil majors were blocking its access to locally produced crude and the regulator (NNPCL and NMDPRA) were allowing fuel traders import high-sulphur gasoil, thereby undermining its refinery.

“But when some lawmakers from the National Assembly visited the plant few weeks later, Alhaji Aliko Dangote insisted on a test of the gasoil from his plant with others sold in the local market. The result showed that Dangote Refinery’s diesel had a sulphur content of 87.6 ppm, whereas the other two samples showed sulphur levels exceeding 1800 ppm and 2,000 ppm, respectively.

“Meanwhile, the downstream regulator, NMDPRA had alleged that the gasoil processed by the Dangote Refinery was between 650 to 1200 parts per million of sulphur, thus inferior to imported products. Meanwhile, our findings revealed that Nigeria’s regulation allows for the sulphur content in gasoil to be about 50 ppm”, the Coalition said.

“In the coming days, we shall announce the date where we shall match, with each of the 100 groups mobilizing not less than 200 members, in a 2 million-man match to the NNPC towers and the National Assembly, to demand that the Warri Refinery be activated. To demand accountability from those who collected the money to fix our refineries and are now speaking English”.

It would be recalled that, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, had stated in February this year, that the Warri Refinery would be rehabilitated by the first quarter of this year.

Warri, one of Nigeria’s three refineries operated by NNPCL, is situated in Warri, Delta State, and was established in 1978. The other two are the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company in Kaduna State and the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.

Warri Refinery is a complex conversion refinery that processes 125,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The facility houses a 1988-founded petrochemical plant that produces carbon black and polypropylene.