NNPC to stop running refineries, says Kyari

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will no longer be involved in the management of refineries after their rehabilitation, the agency’s Group Managing Director (GMD) Mallam Mele Kyari, hinted on Wednesday.

Speaking on Arise TV breakfast programme – the Morning Show, Kyari said that upon completion of the ongoing rehabilitation, a company will be hired to manage the plants on an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) basis.

He said: “We are going to get an O&M contract, NNPC won’t run it. We are going to get a firm that will guarantee that this plant would run for some time. We want to try a different model of getting this refinery to run. And we are going to apply this process for the running of the other two refineries.”

The NNPC boss said the government plans to get private partners to invest in the refineries and run them on the NLNG model where the shareholders would be free to decide the fate of the refineries going forward.

Kyari stated that the model, which is totally different from previous approach, will guarantee the desired outcome for the refineries.

He said the decision to end the fuel subsidy regime was taken in the interest of ordinary Nigerians as it will free up funds for the various tiers of government to develop basic infrastructure in education, health, transport and other sectors

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