The National Assembly has spent more than N10 trillion on the country’s refineries, yet they yet they do not work according to Taiwo Oyedele, the chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee. He made this claim at the Platform Nigeria symposium on Monday, October 2 in Lagos.
He feels that selling the refineries would be better.
He said:
“Nigerians would say if only our refineries were working, then we will be fine. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that. In fact, Nigerians should come together and say please make sure that our refineries do not work. We should sell them.
“The National Assembly said we have spent over N10 trillion maintaining our refineries even when they have not produced anything
“If Nigerian refineries process crude oil unless we deal with our inefficiency, one litre of petrol will be the most expensive in the world. You would have succeeded in replacing the subsidy at the pump with the subsidy for the refineries.”
The National Assembly declared in August 2023 that it would look into the purported N11.3 trillion Federal Government expenditure on turnaround maintenance for Nigeria’s refineries between 2010 and 2020.
Despite a sizable sum of money being spent on their upkeep during the last ten years, Nigeria’s refineries are in a deplorable state, according to the chairman of the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee.
He highlighted that spending recklessly should have consequences.
Heineken Lokpobiri, the current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has stated that all of the refineries will be operational between December 2023 and 2024. In the meantime, the Buhari administration began a process of another round of refinery rehabilitation for the Warri, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt refineries, which are still ongoing under the Tinubu administration.
According to Oyedele, unless the nation is completely prepared to face these difficulties, the need to reduce inefficiencies demands serious consideration of selling off the refineries.
Dan D. Kunle, an oil and gas analyst, reiterated this viewpoint by highlighting the government’s issues with inefficiencies in the public sector.
Kunle emphasized that the oil and gas industry should be handed to the private sector for efficient management and operation. He said that the government’s extensive engagement in numerous elements is the cause of the sector’s myriad problems.
Kunle emphasized that when compared to its public sector rivals, the private sector has shown to be more operationally efficient.
Therefore, he argued that the downstream sector should be given to private companies, highlighting their ability to perform at their highest level of efficiency.
Mr. Kunle previously bemoaned the inactivity and underutilization of crucial Warri refinery parts like the petrochemical unit and the black carbon facility.
Under government administration, these facilities that were created to provide essential raw materials for Nigeria’s tire industry have been inert for years.
