Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva has stated that the Port Harcourt Refinery will become functional in 18 months.
Sylva said this in an interview on Channels Television, in reaction to controversy that trailed the approval of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery (an amount which many had described as too much for the project).
The Minister who insisted that the rehabilitation exercise is not a waste of funds, added that there are plans to also fix the Warri Refinery and Kaduna Refinery.
He said;
“Port Harcourt Refinery will work, and certainly within the next 18 months.
“There are plans to also fix the Warri Refinery and Kaduna Refinery and then we would get all those staff to work.”
Sylva debunked insinuations that the rehabilitation could have taken less than N500m, while also listing how the project will be funded.
He added;
“You see, Nigerians like to bandy figures. I can tell you, that that cannot be true. We are talking with the professionals.
“Let me tell you how this rehabilitation is going to be funded; it is not going to be all debts, we are not going to borrow all the monies that are going into the rehabilitation” he added.
“Some of the money will come from NNPC’s internally generated revenue – from NPDC, some of it will come from the Federal appropriation, and just a little fraction will come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).”