Despite being shut down, there is evidence that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) may have left over ?136 billion as operational deficits across its three refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri. This is as concerns over delivery timeline and violations of local content law dog ongoing rehabilitation of the refineries.
Recollect that NNPC had shut down the 445,000-capacity refineries for over two years, yet kept the over 1,701 staff at the facilities, as it rehabilitates the Port Harcourt refinery for $1.5 billion and those of Warri and Kaduna for $1.4b.
In August 2020, the total casualties incurred by the refineries was ?7.08b, it was ?7.04b in September of the same year before moving to ?5.4b in October. In November 2020, it went up to ?5.9b and went further up to ?8.2b in December that year.
In January 2021, the operational deficit was ?5.3b; February recorded a ?6.8b loss, ?3.8b in March, ?3.5b in April, and ?5.2b in May, ?4.01b in June, ?3.7b in July and ?3.8b in August 2021.
On average, NNPC spends, plus or minus, ?68b in paying salaries and other expenses at the moribund refineries, yearly. In the last two years, the losses have amounted to an average of ?136b.
The NNPC Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, in November 2020, said the refineries were shut down, because their operations were no longer sustainable, while the overheads remained a snag on the books of the company, which is aiming to quickly return to profitability after years of loss-making.
As of 2021, NNPC had 7,338 staff, 1,701 of the workers were at the Kaduna, Port-Harcourt, and Warri refineries.
About 660 staff, representing 8.99 percent of the company’s total workforce, are at the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), 506 are at the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and 437 are at Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).
Remember that the Federal Government had approved $1.5 billion to rehabilitate and upgrade the Port Harcourt refinery complex in March 2021.
Source: Guardian Nigeria