06 September 2015, Abuja – A top oil industry expert who claimed knowledge of the past handling of a tender for the turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the Port Harcourt refinery in Eleme at the weekend provided THISDAY details of how officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) allegedly ruined TAM plans on the refinery.
Perhaps responding to recent disclosure that over $287 million was saved by the corporation from its engagement of local contractors to undertake the TAM exercise as stated by the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu during his assessment of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, the expert stated that the NNPC may have deliberately altered the facts in the TAM exercise.
While preferring to speak to the paper anonymously in Abuja, he claimed familiarity with the workings of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and original refinery builder (ORB) of the refinery, Japan Gas Company (JGC) and Tecnimont of Italy, and stated that the original TAM proposal for Port Harcourt was initially submitted to NNPC in 2013 at a cost of $297 million by Tecnimont but some of its officials opted to inflate the cost to almost $600 million.
He explained that Kachikwu may not have received the exact and honest briefing on the Port Harcourt TAM, adding that his claims that NNPC used its manpower and local oil servicing firms to achieve the maintenance at the cost of less than $10 million were suspicious.
Kachikwu had at the tour said: “The asking price by the original refinery builder was $297 million. The disaster with that was that they were not professionals and they were not ready to give us guarantees. What we have done so far is under $10 million.
- This Day