‘They’re comfortable importing’ — Rivers IPMAN says FG not committed to fixing state refinery

The Rivers chapter of the Independent Petrol Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has accused Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum, of paying lip service to the completion of the rehabilitation work on the Port Harcourt refinery.

In 2021, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited commenced the rehabilitation of the refinery after FEC approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the project.

Recently, Sylva said the plant would commence refining activities before the end of the second quarter of 2023.

Commenting on the matter, Joseph Obele, IPMAN chairman in Rivers state, in a statement issued on Thursday, said it was not the first time the minister was making such a promise.

He said the minister’s assurances had been given too many times without results.

“Secondly, he said by first quarter of 2023, he failed. Now, he is saying second quarter of 2023, he will definitely fail,” he said.

“They are not committed to seeing the refinery functional. They are comfortable importing from the international market because they have shares in those foreign refineries.

“It will take a corrupt-free government to make our refineries functional, then and only the persistent fuel scarcity will be a thing of the past and Nigerians will buy fuel less than N100 per litre.

“We don’t trust them anymore, so they should stop making promises and continue importing from those foreign refineries owned by their business partners.

“Nigeria is the only critical member of OPEC without a functional refinery, we should be ashamed as a nation.”