THE chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has expressed doubts that the refineries under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) would ever work again.

The billionaire businessman reportedly expressed concern while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, after a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, on Thursday, July 10.

He pointed out that the NNPCL facilities,  Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, despite gulping up to $18 billion, have failed to work amid recent turnaround maintenance.

He likened the turnaround maintenance of the refineries to trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago, when technology has advanced.

“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” Dangote said.

He hinted that the 650,000-capacity Dangote Refinery, which he built after the government of late President Umar Yar’adua aborted his acquisition of the state-owned refineries, now has over 50 per cent of its output dedicated to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).

He said the government refineries committed just 22 per cent of their production to petrol.

Dangote recalled how he and his team returned the refineries to Yar’adua, a few months after former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office in 2007.

According to him, the former managers of the NNPCL had told Yar’Adua that Obasanjo sold the facilities below their costs as a parting gift to him.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work,” he said.

The former NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari,  at the tail end of last year, declared that Port Harcourt has been operational.

However, the call to privatise the government-owned refineries, under the management of NNPCL, has been intensified following the recent shutdown of the 60,000 barrels-per-day old Port Harcourt refinery, six months after it was declared operational.

The Warri refinery was also shut down one month after Kyari declared it open in December.

The ICIR reported on May 24 that the NNPCL officially announced a temporary shutdown of the Port Harcourt Refining Company for scheduled maintenance.

The shut down was to ensure the maintenance and assessment activities of the refinery are carried out efficiently and transparently, the NNPCL said, noting that it was working closely with all relevant stakeholders, including the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMPDRA), however, no notice has been given as for the reopening of operational since then.