BY BANYO TEMITAYO
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, on Tuesday, signed the $1.5 billion ‘complete rehabilitation’ contract with Italian firm, Tecnimont SpA, for the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The contract signing ceremony went ahead in spite of the heated controversy that had trailed the decision of the Federal Executive Council to approve the amount for the rehabilitation of the refinery.
Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, insisted, during the ceremony in Abuja, that the decision to rehabilitate the refinery, which had been moribund, was justifiable, saying the Federal Government had done the right thing.
“My colleagues and I, in NNPC, we are over 7,000, and this moment, we are very proud to say we have done the right thing. We have done the right thing because it a very abnormal situation,” Kyari said.
He explained, “First and foremost, we all agree that no one will drag in labour unions, transparency international, infrastructure concenssioning and regulatory agency of the country into a tender process. If we had anything to hide or worry about, we won’t do this.
“My colleagues and I, we are very proud that we did this so that this tender process which culminated in this event of today is monumental history for us.”
He added, “We are aware of many of the misgivings in the public space around cost, around political compromises, even around potentially, why do we even have to do this? We understand this.
“Some people, if they had the opportunity, this is what they would do. If they had the opportunity, they would hike the cost, they would have seen it as an opportunity to make or earn income that they have not worked for. They would also see it as an opportunity for political patronage.
“As we speak, I can confirm to you that if I see the COO Tecniomont, I cannot recognize him. As a matter of fact, when I came in, I had difficulty remembering whether I had met him, with due respect.”
Kyari said, since 2010, the Corporation thought it would do the rehabilitation work through the original refinery builders, but added that refinery builders were not in the business of fixing refineries.
He said Technimont was recommended by the original builders of the Port Harcourt refinery to work with NNPC.
“The actual cost, exclusive of VAT is actually $1.299 billion with provisional sum of $162 billion. That is the value of the contract,” he explained, promising that the project would be delivered on time and on budget as agreed.
