$3bn Refinery Fraud: N80bn Found In sacked MD’s Bank Accounts

Staff threaten strike

Meanwhile, plans to restart a section of Nigeria’s 125,000b/d Warri refinery are at risk due to an indefinite strike planned by plant support staff scheduled to begin on Monday, May 5, 2025. The strike is in protest against casualisation, low pay, and lack of benefits.

A new report by Argus Media said the state-owned company had planned to restart the crude and vacuum distillation units, CDU and VDU, and a gas plant in the first week of May. But the support staff have timed their strike to disrupt these plans.

Support staff representative, Dafe Ighomitedo, said the striking workers had been protesting their employment terms since 2015.

“A previous strike called in April 2022 would have delayed the start of the quick-fix programme, but it was called off following appeals from community leaders and a promise from refinery management to address the workers’ demands if they supported the programme,” Ighomitedo said.

“Workers were promised an improved salary structure upon the refinery’s restart, but that promise has not been fulfilled,” he added.

IPMAN worried, PETROAN demands probe

The Delta State Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Harry Okenini, speaking with Saturday PUNCH, expressed worry over the non-production of petrol at the Warri refinery, months after the announced completion of its rehabilitation.

The IPMAN boss said, “Since the inauguration of the rehabilitated Warri refinery on January 5, 2025, there has been no green light for IPMAN to lift petroleum products from the facility.

“For the past months, there has been no product for marketers here, and we cannot just stay idle, so we decided to source products from the private depots.

“These private depot owners, today they will increase the price; tomorrow they will increase it again. So, the whole thing has caused problems for the business.”

He appealed to the Federal Government to give the newly-appointed board of the NNPCL a free hand to work.

Also, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria called for an investigation into the condition of the refineries.

Challenged by one of our correspondents to defend its earlier claims that the refineries were supplying fuel to its members, PETROAN National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, said the refineries were working at the time he and his team visited the sites.

He said, “We had very clear knowledge because we had a technical team with us, and the evaluation showed that there was hope for these refineries to work. We are not the contractors; we are not the ones who maintain them.

“So, we went home with the fact that we saw the refineries working and the furnaces were lighting up. But if today they are not working, then, of course, PETROAN probably needs to revisit and check what happened and what didn’t happen, which we are going to do.

“Since this news came out, I have had meetings with NMDPRA and a few other critical leaders in the industry.

“For us, we want to encourage the system to be very efficient. But if what has been done is not good enough, of course, you can see that punishment is being meted out to those who managed it. So, we hope that things will become much better.”

An energy expert, Dan Kunle, described the much-celebrated renovation as a scandal.

Giving insights, Kunle said the Federal Government failed to convince the original builders of the refinery from Japan to come for its renovation, as the country’s government warned against insecurity.

He said another contractor was employed to fix these refineries at a high cost with nothing to show for it yet.

He said the government was only wasting money on renovating the refineries, saying the Kaduna refinery has no pipelines to supply it with crude oil.

“Why did we avoid Japan? Why did we go around when a sovereign authority like Nigeria could not convince Japan to come and fix the refinery? And the same Japanese company is in NLNG doing contracts.

“Kaduna refinery has no pipe to feed it. Even if you fix the Kaduna refinery with the $800m or $750m, how will crude get there? So why will you put the rehabilitation of that place on course and abandon the crude pipeline from Escravo to Warri, to Auchi, to Lokoja, to Suleja?

“The crude pipeline was built in the late 70s. Today, you cannot pressurise crude from Escravo to that place.

“All these three refineries, we are wasting money rehabilitating them,” Kunle stated.

He accused Kyari of launching media propaganda with public funds to deceive Nigerians that the refineries were working.