The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently revealed that the country spent $36.3 billion on the importation of petroleum products from 2013 to 2017. The apex bank also disclosed that the money was part of the country’s total $119.409 billion import bill for the period. The CBN’s Director of Research, Mr. Ganiyu Amao, stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee, which is investigating the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s refineries.
The House also rejected the submission of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) fresh bid to carry out a turn around maintenance on the nation’s four refineries at $1.8 billion based on lack of clarity. The committee gave the oil behemoth 24 hours to provide detailed information on the previous TAM and other repairs as a condition to justify the current one. In all, the nation’s refineries have installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.
We recall that last year, it was estimated that $2 billion was required to put the refineries back on stream. It was also reported then that 26 firms actually indicated interest to revamp the refineries.
All the same, we heartily welcome the investigation of previous routine maintenance of the refineries and urge the committee to be diligent in its assignment. It has become necessary for the NNPC to reveal to Nigerians how much has been sunk in maintaining the refineries. Being accountable is the only way it can justify a fresh maintenance budget. There should be transparency in the running of the oil corporation and nothing should be shrouded in secrecy. The war against corruption demands that every agency of government must be transparent in its transactions.
We, therefore, urge the House committee to thoroughly carry out the investigation and make the outcome public. In the same vein, we decry the high import bill of petroleum products during the period under review. As an oil-producing nation, we ought to have no business with the importation of petroleum products. Rather, we should be exporting refined petroleum products. The increasing bill of TAM and fuel importation cannot be sustained for a long time. Instead of importation of fuel and high cost of TAM, the government should consider building new refineries to augment the existing ones. Interestingly, government had long given approval for the building of new private refineries. Unfortunately, none has been completed.
Building new refineries and maintaining the existing ones at lower cost should be the best option to end fuel importation in the country. But the government must also work towards ending the importation of petroleum products within a stipulated time frame.
That is why the recent news that the government is planning to end importation of refined petroleum products by December 2019 is cheering. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated this at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Texas, United States. It is reassuring that Baru is making arrangement with the original builders of the Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries to return them to 90 per cent capacity utilisation and ensure that the 2019 deadline to end fuel importation is met.
Nigeria should work towards the exportation of refined petroleum products. Let all stakeholders in the oil industry work together and ensure that we end fuel importation by 2019. We strongly believe that building new refineries is the surest way to end our overdependence on imported petroleum products.