The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachukwu has
clashed with the Group Chief Executive of Oando PLC, Mr. Wale Tinubu,
over alleged planned concessioning of Port-Harcourt refinery.
Both men met on Thursday during a one-day Public Hearing of the Senate on the way forward for the oil sector.
The Minister, who appeared before the Senator Abubakar Kyari-led ad
hoc Committee on the Planned Concession of the Refinery rebuffed Tinubu
and disowned statements credited to the latter which implied that his
company (Oando) has been granted concession for the Port Harcourt
refinery.
Although Wale Tinubu also denied ever making any remark in the media
on alleged concession of Port Harcourt refinery to the oil company by
the federal government, he vehemently maintained his stand that the
refinery has been packaged for Oando’s rehabilitation.
After accusation and counter accusation between the two, the Senate
and the federal agencies handling the nation’s oil refineries on alleged
move to concession the Port Harcourt Refinery, all parties settled for
revamping, rehabilitation and maintenance of the refinery along with
others through what they termed, sourced financing from private oil
firms.
Speaking further on the state of the refinery, Kachikwu who noted
that $300 million would be required to repair it, said that it was
better to engage the company that built the refinery in the first
instance for its repairs, due to the availability of spare parts and
knowledge of the configuration, adding that the country’s refineries
were being run and maintained by Nigerian engineers, and acknowledged
that there was the urgent need for constant retraining of the engineers.
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