The Federal Government has hinted of new measures to address the lingering problems in the production and supply of petroleum products to most Nigerians.
Besides the ongoing repairs of the four refineries, which have been operating at epileptic level, the government said that the Greenfield refineries it planned to set up in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Lagos states, would produce 400,000 barrels per day (bpd).
To ensure uninterrupted operation and adequate maintenance of the four old refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt (two in Rivers State), and Warri (Delta State), the government said it had handed over the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) to their original builders.
The measure, it said, had helped to eliminate middlemen, who were profiting from the repairs of the refineries that never worked at optimal capacity.
“Right now, we are almost going through with the dredging of the Niger to create alternative ways of bringing goods and services inland. We have dredged the Niger up to Baru. We are now doing maintenance dredging to keep it out of segmentation. The inland waterway ports are being built and that of Onitsha is completed.
“So, all these are the projects we are doing to first of all create infrastructure that would have impact on the economy and we are hoping that we can get job creation especially through Information Communication Technology (ICT) and agriculture, ” Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Labara Maku said .
The minister further explained that the government had initiated a programme to produce 450 metric tonnes of rice using the existing dams in the country, noting that the dams through private initiatives and government support would employ tens of thousands in the cause of production of rice.
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Dredging Today Staff, December 22, 2011;