The president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has said that the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries may never operate properly again in spite of the $18 billion invested in their rehabilitation.
He added that his 650,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery was constructed after the government of late President Umar Yar’adua declined to sell the refineries to him.
TheHintsNews reports that the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo had sold the Port Harcourt refinery to Dangote, but it was revoked by the administration of late President Umar Yar’dua.
Dangote stated this on Friday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa, who visited the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
His words: “The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007.
“Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government. And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so.
“I ran to him (Yar’Adua), and I said, ‘You know this is not right. He said, Well, NNPC said they can do it. I said, NNPC cannot do it.
“And as of today, they have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work.”
“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything had changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine.”
“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could eat and carry on with the corruption that was going on in NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail.”