Senate Leadership Tasks NNPCL on Local Refining of Petroleum Products

By Our Reporter 

The Senate President, H. E Godswill Akpabio, has called on management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to
live up to its promise of refining petroleum products locally by 2024.

Akpabio, who made the call when the management of NNPCL led by the group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, paid him a courtesy visit in his office, assured that the Senate would put in place legislation that would ensure the ease of doing business in the oil and gas sector.

The Senate President noted that local refining would not only ensure job creation for the teeming youths in the country, but would curb incidents of pipeline vandalisation and oil theft that are bedeviling the sector.

Speaking during the visit, the Chairman Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Jarigbe Agom, pointed out that there is need to revamp the existing refineries and make them functional.

According to him, revamping the refineries would go a long way to making life more affordable and better for ordinary citizens.

Earlier in his remarks,  the Group CEO, Mallam Mele Kyari, commended the National Assembly for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), adding that without which the industry would still be struggling with fiscal situations and confidence of investors.

He disclosed that the robust supply plan of petroleum products has been put in place up till next year.

He assured that there will be no fuel shortages, primarily because they occupy over 30 percent of the downstream business and as such no queues are expected.

Other Senate leaders in attendance include the Deputy President, the Majority and Minority Leaders and Minority Whip.