The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Mr Mele Kyari has attributed the deteriorating state of Nigerian refineries to the lack of maintenance culture over time and the absence of skilled Nigerian refiners.
He had made this statement in response to a question that bordered on the technical capacity of NNPC to effectively manage oil refinery, sales and exploration in the country asked at the House of Representative Committee on Petroleum Upstream, in Abuja on Monday.
He stated, that skilled Nigerian technicians are involved in the world’s global Oil and Gas industry today and that amongst the black nations of the world, Nigeria happens to be the highest contributor of manpower in the industry. A whopping 90% of technical hands in the industry are locally sourced. Hence the refineries didn’t go moribund because of a lack of skills but due to negligence of maintenance and care. And this blame could be put on anyone not necessarily the question of skilled people in the corporation. He pointed out that the real problem was that these people were not properly engaged.
He further stated that the will and plan of the current administration of the NNPC were to get these skilled hands to active service. With this, the plans to revive the refineries will be properly actualized.
