Mele Kyari, NNPC Group Managing Director, revealed this on Monday in Abuja while discussing newsmen on issues emanating from the proposed rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery approved by the Federal Government last week.
Kyari further elaborated on the sum, stressing that to construct a refinery the size and nature of the Port Harcourt refinery in the country, it will cost the federal government around 7 billion dollars and 12 billion dollars.
“We have people saying why not build a new one; why will you repair an old refinery with 1.5 billion dollars? The fact is available even by Google search, what it takes to build a refinery of this status today.
“This is the estimate you see in public space and there are things you do outside the construction battle-limits like the utilities that are never accounted for when estimates of this nature are done.
“Typically, there is an additional 25 per cent cost for construction battle-limits, so, when you say a refinery can be built at 7 billion dollars or even 10 billion dollars, also think of that 25 per cent.
“If we start a new refinery of this nature today, it can’t work in less than four years, therefore, it means we will continue to import petroleum products in the next four years or more,” Kyari said.
According to him, the country did not do well in maintaining the refineries in the past 25 years as the last turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery happened 21 years ago.
“What we are seeing today is the cumulative effect of our lack of doing proper maintenance over a period of time but something has changed today and this is why we are proud to tell Nigerians that we have done something different in the background.
“This is because we have a government that allowed us to play our role without interference in terms of our procurement exercises and this made the process go unhindered.
