NNPC Seeking Funding  Alternatives For Refineries’ Overhaul – Baru

The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, has said that the oil firm is currently in search of the best financing  options to adopt for the overhaul of the nation’s refineries.

He said the NNPC would get tired to in the search to get the refineries back to their optimal nameplate capacities.

Baru said this after receiving this year’s ‘Man of the Year Award’ from the Nigerian NewsDirect, a Lagos-based daily publication, according to a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu.

The GMD added that as part of the ongoing reforms, the corporation had been holding far-reaching discussions with some consortia to get the best funding options towards the refineries’ overhaul.

He said the corporation had recorded progress in resuscitating some of the nation’s critical downstream infrastructure, a development that had ensured the adequate supply of products nationwide.

The NNPC boss was quoted as saying, “Since coming on board, we have made the revamp of our abandoned assets and critical downstream infrastructure a key component of our corporate vision of 12 Business Focus Areas.”

Baru noted that over the last few months, many crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines were resuscitated; more than half of the nation’s 21 strategic depots were also upgraded.

He decried acts of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and sabotage, which he noted had resulted in huge loss of revenue, lives and property as well as damage to the environment.

Baru called on security agencies and other stakeholders nationwide to collaborate with the corporation in its ongoing campaign against act of sabotage on oil and gas facilities.

He attributed the recent fuel challenges faced in parts of the country to the nefarious acts of hoarders, product diverters, profiteers and smugglers, and stressed that the corporation was working with relevant stakeholders to ensure the sufficiency currently being witnessed was sustained.