President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday, held a meeting with refinery operators and technical managers of the three refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri in an effort towards bringing a full turn around to the refineries.

The meeting which took place at the Presidential villa is following a two day retreat convened by the Minister of Petroleum resources and is designed to find solution towards tackling the challenges that led to the inability of the refineries to operate at full capacity

Briefing state house correspondents after the meeting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison Madueke said that the challenges in the Nigerian refineries are still prevalent but that the retreat was designed to encapsulate the challenges that they saw and put the solutions across the board.

According to the Minister, plans for the new Green Field refineries billed for Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi states, which are envisaged to add 750,000 barrels per day of extra refining capacity to Nigeria’s current 445,000 barrel per day capacity, is still on course. And she emphasized that the government will only be playing a very minimal-participatory role in the building of the refineries.

She says besides this move, the sector is being thrown open to capable investors and the federal government participation in the running of the new refineries will be minimal to allow better efficiency

The Minister condemned the incessant vandalisation of oil pipelines, which claims is still prevalent in the country, as well as the outdated equipment and lack of training. She noted that a strategic frame work will soon be fashioned out to bring a turn around to the refineries.

In a separate event, the Kalu Idika Kalu led task force on refineries was inaugurated with a 60 working days timeline to complete its mandate of unraveling the issues bedeviling local refining.