The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved $11.174 billion for the construction of a standard-gauge coastal railway from Lagos to Calabar. FEC also approved the award of two contracts to the tune of N6.2 billion and N2.31 billion, respectively, for the construction of two power substations in Jigawa and Akwa Ibom states.
The council approved the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Dangote Petroleum and petrochemical refinery in the sum of $2.76 billion.
This was as hope for the restoration of the country’s four refineries in less than eight years from now was raised yesterday. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, disclosed these at the end of the monthly FEC meeting in Abuja.
Sylva also announced the federal government’s approval of $1.484 billion for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna refineries. However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to meet its gross revenue projections in the first six months of 2021, hitting a huge deficit of N1.106 trillion during the period.
The minister, who announced this to journalists at the end of the FEC meeting, also said that 15 percent of the total for the refurbishment of the two refineries at Port Harcourt, which was awarded earlier this year, has currently been paid to the construction company working on site .
The minister said the FEC meeting had approved the award of contracts for the refurbishment of the Warri and Kaduna refineries to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited totaling $ 1.484 billion.
According to him, $ 897,678,800 would be spent repairing the Warri Refinery, while the Kaduna Refinery will swallow $ 586,902,256.
He stressed that the rehabilitation exercise would be completed in three phases over a period of 77 months.
He stated: “The completion of the refurbishment of the Warri and Kaduna refineries will be carried out in three phases. The first phase will be completed within 21 months, the second phase will be completed in 23 months and full rehabilitation will be completed in 33 months. “
At the Port Harcourt refinery, Sylva noted that the repair work had started and added that the first 15 percent of the contract amount had already been paid to the contractor and the contractor was fully mobilized on site.
“In the council, we also discussed the need to provide regular updates. Soon we will be inspecting the work at the Port Harcourt Refinery and you will all be with us on this visit, ”he said.
Meanwhile, the NNPC failed to meet its gross revenue projections in the first six months of 2021, hitting a huge deficit of N.1.106 trillion in the reporting period.
The latest data on the operation of the NNPC, received from THIS DAY, showed that NNPC was down for the first half of this year compared to a monthly budget of $ 414.941 billion in May.
The 44-year-old corporation is currently suffering from high operating costs, particularly in its drilling activities, as well as the reduction in the oil production quota by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is shutting down some of its assets.
Additionally, paying fuel subsidies remains a burden to bear on the company, despite having said the situation is unsustainable with the underfunding gobbling up over N608 billion between February and June this year.
Information on the company’s funding performance indicated that its gross revenue forecast for the year was estimated at N4.979 trillion and N2.489 trillion, but only met its financial target of N 1.383 trillion, leaving a shortfall of N1.106 trillion .
In January, the NNPC struggled to generate gross sales of N191.194 billion from the calendar-wise sum of N 414.941 billion, just as it did in February when it had gross sales of N 191.194 billion.
