₦airaland Forum

The federal government has every right to be in a buoyant mood; after several years of neglect, depressing commentaries, unbelief and cynicism fueled by failed promises, the nation’s four moribund refineries are Port Harcourt on the cusp of astonishing transformation.

This significant revival mirrors the power of unrelenting vision, unwavering commitment and undiluted driven by passion for a higher purpose. When the old Port Harcourt refinery resumed production on November 26, 2024, after extensive rehabilitation, the unfortunate attempt to weaponize and turn this landmark achievement into a political football stirred avoidable controversy that seemed to undermine its significance. Fortunately, while the doubting Thomases had their day, the impact of the revamp as a significant step in the country’s quest for energy security and concerted effort to reduce over reliance on imported refined products was not lost on well meaning Nigerians. Those who thought that the Port Harcourt refinery revamp was a flash in the pan were in for a rude shock.

Few days to the end of 2024, Mele Kyari, the intrepid head of the NNPC, the renaissance man at the centre of a silent revolution within the country’s energy sector delivered another powerful message to Nigerians. In company of regulators, journalists and government officials, he informed the nation that the Warri Refining & Petrochemicals Company (WRPC), situated in Ekpan, Uwvie and Ubeji areas of Warri has been revamped and was ready for business. The Warri Petrochemical plant, established in 1978, has an annual production capacity of 13,000 metric tons of Polypropylene and 18,000 metric tons of carbon black; it was built to cater to the markets in the Southern and South Western markets of the country. Composed of three stages, the Mele Kyari led NNPC, through its technical partners have started Stage One also called Area 1 which is able to produce AGO (diesel), Kerosene, Naphtha and others. These brands are required for both domestic and industrial use in the country. Shortly, the other plants that will produce Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) will commence production. The Kaduna refinery currently under rehabilitation will soon become operational.

Collectively, Kyari’s footprints in the upstream and downstream sectors of the energy sector, especially his determination to revamp the four state owned refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 bpd underscores a huge leap in the country’s quest for energy security.

Decades of neglect, damage and accusations of mismanagement had held the realization of this lofty aspiration in abeyance and inflicted pain on Nigerians. As the mainstay of the economy, there was little or no doubt that continuation on this unenviable trajectory would further imperil the economy and plunge it into further atrophy. Mele Kyari mounted the saddle as the 19th Group Managing Director of NNPC in July 2019 with the determination to cleanse the Augean stable.

He came to office bristling with ideas on how to engineer what would become the most ambitious reform in the history of the corporation. There was simply no other way to confront the huge task he had set for himself; Nigerians were simply tired and frustrated about the endless revelations of sleaze and alleged mismanagement of the country’s cash cow and to have conducted the business of running the affairs of the corporation as usual would have assured for him, a prominent place in the hall of infamy.

Before Mele Kyari assumed office, almost on daily basis, Nigerians were treated to salacious commentaries detailing administrative lethargy and financial mismanagement of the corporation. The rot, administrative lethargy and alleged systemic corruption culminated in statutory infractions and the abdication of its responsibilities as the corporation began to fail in the fulfilment of its obligations on several fronts; it began to even falter in its remittances to the national treasury.

The uncomplimentary stories which read like a parchment of corruption and scroll of iniquities tarnished the image of the corporation. An audited account of the corporation in 2011 discovered that it could not account for about N28. 5 billion on subsidy related claims; in 2014, Emir Lamido Sanusi the current Emir of Kano raised alarm that a staggering $20bn was missing in the account of NNPC. He spoke in his capacity as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. In March 2016, the Auditor-General of the Federation alleged that the corporation failed to remit about $16bn to the federation account. The avalanche of allegations must have weighed heavily on the mind of Kyari as he took over the mantle of leadership in the beleaguered oil behemoth.

Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2025/01/12/the-return-of-the-warri-petrochemical-plant/?amp

Today na Monday right, good news to start the week

Good mood here as well

This is good for Democracy.
I can now be studying my petrochemical Engineering with peace of mind here.

JAGABAN. He has no single record of abandoned project throughout his life.

Good, gooder, goodest!

We need steel and iron factories too o!

Good

Good one 1️⃣











Nigeria shall be great by God's grace

This government seems to be having things to brag about ...

The major spanner in their wheel now is inflation....if he can manage to bring down the prices of goods and services.. opposition will even campaign for him

This is not about te Warri refinery, this is praise singing for Mele Kyari

Jagabam, the without record of uncompleted project

Let's continue to keep our fingers crossed

Tinubu is doing wonders

Femi Otedola has opened Nduka's nyash. The man should go and pay the loan of hundreds of millions of dollars he collected from first bank. Using Thisday to serve as government trumpet will not cut it.

Are the trunk lines that will feed the warri refinery being put in good condition. These are questions we should be asking

Na Obj time the fire lights last, as Jagaban come light am after over 10years I comot shoe carry yansh hail am.
All hail Jagaban 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽.
This is just the beginning I believe Warri will be great again.
WRPC ✅
NPA (in progress)
Delta Steel (in progress)
With these and the road network from gov Sheriff I can only imagine the Warri I will raise my family in. Thank you Jagaban and Rt. Hon Sheriff.
God bless Nigeria
God bless the big heart
God bless Wado city.

Looking4Trouble:
JAGABAN. He has no single record of abandoned project throughout his life.

While he also holds the record as the only governor who spent the entire eight-year tenure building blueprints.

With the Human and material resources that Nigeria has; weather, tourism and arguably the best music anywhere in the world
We suppose dey reject American visa
Will this hope really be renewed ?

persius555:
Are the trunk lines that will feed the warri refinery being put in good condition. These are questions we should be asking

STFU

It seems Nigeria is beginning to wake up!

👍 Tinubu!!!

Repay your loan and stop patronizing the Federal Government. Nduka Obaigbena is a criminal.

Hmmm

Igb0s won't like this.

By 2027 there won't be anything to campaign against pa Tinubu as the country is beginning to progress.

How can you wish your country evil at all times so that you can say DIDN'T WE WARN YOU NIT FO VOTE FOR TINUBU.

Thank you God for giving us Tinubu because I never supported him at first.

Osibanjo was my candidate but immediately I noticed how Igb0s were supporting the Obi they once cursed, I started supporting Tinubu too.

We pray they do it Not by future tense.

They say that Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, NNPC that used to behave like an emperor in the the Petroleum sector is now being customer centric, carying out and publishing yearly audits and being price competitive all because the coming of Dangote refinery, do they used to be accountable to anyone? Trust me when I say this, as long as government does not remove it's leprous hand from the affairs of NNPC then it will never ever survive max ten years from now because of Competition from Dangote and other refineries that would be coming around

Way to go

persius555:
Are the trunk lines that will feed the warri refinery being put in good condition. These are questions we should be asking

shey e ngbo werey?
Expert isonu

It is really unfair to Buhari, as I have not seen or read from anywhere where a little credit is given to him on these refineries that have started working, most especially on the Port Harcourt and warri refineries. I just feel Nigerians are unfair to him.

Simplemeeeee:
It is really unfair to Buhari, as I have not seen or read from anywhere where a little credit is given to him on these refineries that have started working, most especially on the Port Harcourt and warri refineries. I just feel Nigerians are unfair to him.

Nigerians are partly unfair to Buhari bu let's also be fair to Tinubu because these projects could have and should have been finished under Buhari but they kept getting extended and I have no doubt that if he were president today we would be talking about another extension. Fundamentally, we must realize that one of the key drivers of the completion of these refineries is the removal of fuel subsidy and thus, the disincentive for the oil cabal to sabotage their rehabilitation.

However, Buhari did try and he gets partial credit for removing fuel subsidy too.

You made a brilliant submission.

However, have you considered the depth of the rot of the refineries that a lot of people considered not possible to be revived, as the possible reason for the postponement of the start of the refineries?

Have you also considered that Buhari is the one that actually removed the subsidy, hence created the ground work for these successes by budgeting for fuel subsidy for just six months out of a full year budget cycle?

Think about these and you will realize that truly Buhari is the one that did the dirty job and an unsung hero.

SmartyPants:
Nigerians are partly unfair to Buhari bu let's also be fair to Tinubu because these projects could have and should have been finished under Buhari but they kept getting extended and I have no doubt that if he were president today we would be talking about another extension. Fundamentally, we must realize that one of the key drivers of the completion of these refineries is the removal of fuel subsidy and thus, the disincentive for the oil cabal to sabotage their rehabilitation.

However, Buhari did try and he gets partial credit for removing fuel subsidy too.

People of Warri are tankers loading out of that refinery or is it audio reactivation? I dont see transport cost dropping in Warri.

Are those blueprints physical projects now 20+ years after?you guys do not know why he ensures getting his man to be gov.of lagos during any election circle after he left office,your state gov. during his time,where is the blueprint or the physical project to show for being gov.for 8 years?

Bobloco:
While he also holds the record as the only governor who spent the entire eight-year tenure building blueprints.

Simplemeeeee:
You made a brilliant submission.

However, have you considered the depth of the rot of the refineries that a lot of people considered not possible to be revived?

Have you also considered that Buhari is the one that actually removed the subsidy, hence created the ground work for these successes by budgeting for fuel subsidy for just six months out of a full year budget cycle?

Think about these and you will realize that truly Buhari is the one that did the dirty job and an unsung hero.

Honestly, I think the rot in the refineries was a complete exaggeration. Give any of those refineries to the Chinese, and they would have been working perfectly in 6 months. There simply has never been the political will but I give credit to Buhari for having the political will to start the process. However, he didn't have the political will to go after the real obstacles.

I agree that Buhari is the real remover of the fuel subsidy, but you can't give him complete credit because he did it in a cowardly manner in his last year, and only to take effect in the next President's tenure. I would have given him full marks had he done it from day one of his own government, which is what someone with a strong political will would have done.

Overall, I think we largely agree that Buhari deserves credit, but we disagree on how much credit he deserves.