Another ministerial nominee who wowed the senate today was Ibe Kachiukwu, the Group Managing Director of NNPC. During his presentation, Kachiukwu said NNPC is working to stop fuel scarcity in Nigeria. He said to effectively stop scarcity of petroleum products, Nigeria must have a total overhauling of its refineries.
Kachiukwu said the plan is to increase the capacity of our refineries. Kachiukwu said by December, refineries that do not produce at 90 percent will be shut down and a total maintenance will be carried out.
He attributed lack of total shut down maintenance on the various refineries as a major reason for the fluctuating levels of production. Kachiukwu said strategic reserves and sustenance of refineries will be his priority.
He said the Petroleum Industry Bill will be looked into and adjusted to fit the present and future needs of the petroleum sector. The NNPC GMD said he won't be constrained by the lack of PIB and will continue to work with the existing laws for now.
Ibe Kachiukwu said $15billion dollars is being lost every year as a result of the absence of PIB.
Kachiukwu said upon resuming as NNPC GMD, he met well trained and committed staff in NNPC.
He said corruption is a major problem in NNPC and he is working to cut it off from the institution. He said contracts were called off due to some discrepancies and that structural organization was also a major issue in NNPC. He said this has led to the cutting down of senior officials in NNPC.
He pledged to produce a monthly publication detailing all the developments of NNPC. He said this is a right that Nigerians are entitled to. He said he will focus more on Local content initiative in the oil sector and he will be bringing into the NNPC transparency and speed .
On how to address pipeline vandalism, Kachiukwu said Nigerian military and security agents have been involved to provide proper security for the pipelines. He said building new petroleum pipelines will be financially tasking. He spoke on granting private license and the need to give it to only people who have detailed business plans to run the refineries. He rejected the removal of subsidy, calling it unrealistic. He said unless some issues are addressed, subsidy will still be in existence. Kachiukwu said he will be focusing on the optimum utilization of gas.
He was then asked to take his leave.