Read!: Nigeria doesn’t have money to build new refineries - NNPC MD Kyari; Nigeria's National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has stated that the country has the financial means to build new refineries.

Mele Kyari, NNPC Group Managing Director, quoted the country's economic situation on Monday.

Kyari spoke to reporters about the debate surrounding the planned Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation. According to him, a new refinery would cost around $10 billion, while the expected restoration would cost $1.5 billion.

The MD said if the government decides to construct a new facility, petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will be imported for another four years.

“A new refinery will take four years to commence production.

It is around $7billion and $12billion dollars to construct a refinery of this nature,” he said. Kyari stated that estimates in public space are inaccurate and do not take other factors into account. The NNPC chief mentioned “an additional 25 per cent cost for construction battle-limits” to the 7-12 billion dollars.

“You cannot build a refinery at any cost below these amounts. The option you have is to scrap and build a new one; we all know that we don’t have that resource,” he stated. Kyari added that the last turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery was done two decades ago.

He linked the current high cost of rehabilitation to poor maintenance of the plant over the years.