The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari has declared that the oil company will never declare loss again.
He made the promise in Abuja while speaking as the chairman of the launch of books authored by the NNPCL former Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Billy Okoye.
Kyari also assured that the Port Harcourt refinery would begin production by the end of the month.
He gave the assurance after a meeting with the Senate Ad-hoc Committee, investigating the various Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) projects of Nigerian refineries.
“In the next two weeks, production will start, we did mechanical completion of Port Harcourt, that was what we said in Dec 2023.
“That means we are done with our rehabilitation work, now you are to test if this completion is okay,” he said
On the Warri refinery, Kyari said mechanical works had been completed, adding that the facility was undergoing the regulatory compliance processes.
He, however, said Kaduna would not be ready until December.
Kyari said all the crude lines were active, adding that over 450,000 barrels had been delivered into the Port Harcourt refinery.
“Yes, there may be security issues, but also the government is responding to the situation.
“We are happy to work with the committee and promise not to hide anything from them,” Kyari said.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah (APC-Anambra), said the committee was satisfied with the information from NNPCL.
Ubah said the committee had an understanding of when to go for oversight function of the refineries.
Recall that Kyari, had last week revealed that the corporation recorded 9,000 infractions on its pipelines in just a space of twelve months.
He stated: “From 2022 to date, we have deactivated 6,465 illegal refineries. We have also removed 4,876 illegal connections to pipelines out of 5,570 that we have discovered.”
Dr. Kyari went on to add that the NNPC was uncertain if that was the actual number, mentioning that there were still approximately a thousand connections that the corporation knew had not yet been removed.