It is worrisome that the the NNPCL may have concluded plans to import crude oil from abroad for Dangote and local refineries to refine petroleum products because local crude oil pipelines are obsolete and in bad shape.
Corruption, nothing else, is responsible for lack of maintenance of crude oil pipelines to Nigerian refineries.
Right from when the Warri and Kaduna refineries crude oil pipelines were laid in early 1970 and completed in 1974, the then Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNOC), established in 1974, later metamorphosed in 1977 into the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and into today’s Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), had dedicated, budgeted funds, for regular maintenance of oil pipelines. Not one length of oil pipeline was maintained – the funds were stolen! All past GMDs of the NNOC, NNPC and NNPCL cannot extricate themselves from these malfeasance. This is irresponsibility, dereliction of duty, national calamity and gross national embarrassment on Nigeria for the NNPCL to have the effrontery, audacity to now lay the blame for inability to supply crude oil to Dangote refinery and local refineries on the state of Nigeria’s crude oil pipelines.
The NNPC/NNPCL is the chief regulatory body to whom the Dangote Refinery applied to for the necessary license and approval to build its refinery.
Naturally, especially considering the location of Dangote refinery in the Lekki axis of Lagos state, it is fundamentally critical, and reasonably important for the NNPCL to have the supply of crude oil to the refinery as the foremost factor in the viability of the refinery.
Did the NNPCL forget to consider the strategic importance of pipelines to the supply of crude oil to Dangote Refinery right from the inception of the application by Dangote Group to build her refinery?
Could the ‘Nigerian factor’ be responsible for the NNPCL to have forgotten to factor-in the crucial role of crude oil pipelines into the refining process of Dangote Refinery and production of petroleum products?
Perhaps, one can assume, and this is absolutely nonsense, that the NNPCL had advised Dangote Group that it will/shall not be able to supply her crude oil from the Niger Delta due to information available to her (NNPCL) that the pipelines were in bad shape? Did the NNPCL suggest to Dangote Group, in any way, that she (Dangote Refinery) has to import crude oil for refining at her refinery?
Now that we are at this junction, and as President Tinubu said at the occasion of the end of the retreat for his ministers and aides, “… the buck stops on my table …”, the president has to take a deep, holistic, robust, deliberate look into the ‘Why’s’ why the NNPCL cannot supply the Dangote and local refineries with crude oil for local production – mind you, local production of petroleum products by Nigerian refineries will have direct impact on cheap pump price of petrol in Nigeria.
In his quest to unveil the ‘Why’s’, President Tinubu should order an independent probe of how funds budgeted for oil pipelines maintenance were expended, at least since year 2000 to date.
Finally, President Tinubu should not fall into the deliberate bobby traps which was set by officials of the NNPCL, which his predecessors fell into. He must insist that all facts must be presented to him, irrespective of political considerations and those that may be indicted by the findings of the investigator. The recent revelations at the CBN is a positive reference for the need of an independent investigator for oil pipelines maintenance funds.
Without probing the funds allocated for oil pipelines maintenance, President Tinubu should know that his promise that Nigerian refineries will start production in December 2023 shall not be possible but a pipe dream.