Niger Delta Development & Transformation Initiative (NDDTI), a pro-development group in the oil-rich region of Nigeria, has posited that no amount of talks or actions could salvage the ailing energy sector in Nigeria, except the local refineries were put into operation.

In a press statement signed on Thursday by its Spokesperson, Barr. Lawrence Etienne, the group warned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), particularly, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, to stop deceiving Nigerians over the Port Harcourt refinery.

The group said NNPCL has been playing politics over the moribund local refineries, saying, it keeps shifting the goalposts on deadlines for completion of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

“Every now and then, the NNPCL keeps shifting the goalposts and just when we thought they had run out of excuses, they sent Soneye to come and tell us another story again. We observed that the NNPCL desisted from giving new deadlines for the delivery of the Port Harcourt refinery, having failed to meet its deadlines seven times. The last deadline given was September 2024.

“From December 2023, NNPCL has been giving Nigerians different dates, assuring them that the refinery would begin the sale of refined products soon, having attained mechanical completion. In July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, stated categorically that the refinery would come into operation in early August.

“He had said in 2019 that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration last year.

“President Muhammad Buhari has since left the seat since one and half years ago, yet, none of Nigeria’s refineries is working, despite billions of dollars NNPCL collected from Nigeria’s government, most of which was taken as a foreign loan”, the group said.

NDDTI also averred that Kyari “deceived” the Nigerian Senate, when he appeared before it in July 2024, and promised the Distinguished Lawmakers that, by the end of the year, Nigeria would be a net exporter of petroleum products; adding that, the year is almost ended, yet Nigeria still imports petroleum products, albeit, fake and sulphur induced products.

“The goal is to keep deceiving Nigerians and giving us hopeless hope, just to distract us from their business of importing adulterated products into the country, crashing our naira the more, causing environmental and mechanical hazard to us and causing more hardships for us.

“NNPCL should stop deceiving Nigerians. It’s obvious that Kyari is unable to do the job and should resign immediately, instead of running up and down.

“There is no alternative to local refineries, especially Port Harcourt and Warri that have consumed trillions of naira. No amount of talks or activities from Kyari and his group can salvage our energy sector. They just need to fix the refineries and Kyari also needs to burry his head in shame and leave the stage”, the statement added.

Barely two months after the September completion deadline flop, the NNPCL has explained why it could not deliver the much-awaited Port Harcourt Refinery Company.

While interacting with Journalists on Monday, the NNPC Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said the company encountered risks and challenges while carrying out the rehabilitation, being a brownfield project.

He noted that the NNPC began the commissioning of critical equipment and processing units after the mechanical completion in Nigeria. The agency refused to disclose a new deadline for the completion of the Port Harcourt refinery.

Nigerians have been hopeful that the cost of fuel could crash if the country refines its crude and ends the import of refined products.

The refinery, situated in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region, has been in operation since 1965, but later became moribund for several years. In March 2021, the Nigerian government acquired a $1.5bn loan for the renovation and modernisation of the refinery, but the contractor handling the project has yet to announce its completion.