By Oluwagbenga Bankole
The Managing Director of Petrocam Trading Nigeria Limited Mr. Patrick Ilo has urged President
Muhammadu Buhari to privatised the nation’s four refineries stating that when
the refineries is in the hands of private companies, it will function to the
demands of Nigerians.
Nigeria has four petroleum refineries which are managed by
the NNPC. Two of these refineries are in Port Harcourt, one in Kaduna with
another in Warri. They all have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels
per day.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
recently disclosed that the federal government is considering the option of
building new refineries to complement the old ones as soon as possible.
Kachikwu said it is obvious that the old refineries are
wearing out and can no longer meet local demands of products across the
country, adding that it is only when new refineries are built that the problems
of fuel scarcity and other problems associated with the inability of NNPC and
its subsidiary to deliver will be resolved.
Speaking exclusively with TOTALNEWS247, Ilo said that
there is nowhere in Europe where
government is involve in oil refineries, adding that it is always a private
initiative or better still I believe it should be a Public Private Initiative
(PPI).
“I absolutely think our refineries
should be privatised because the business of government belongs to nobody but
when it is in the hand of credible people and it is well structured then it
works better,” he said.
On the plans of the company to collaborate with its foreign partners
and build a refinery in the country, he said that to build a refinery here in
Nigeria the government has to deregulate the downstream sector, emphasizing
that you cannot be producing and government will be compelling you to sell at a
certain amount of money.
He said if there is guided deregulation; one will be able to plan and
do what is necessary, adding that at this stage, the environment is not
conducive to have a refinery.
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