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FG to grant refineries semi-operational autonomy

By on December 8, 2015

The federal government yesterday disclosed that it was working out a new operational model with which Nigeria’s four refineries would run starting from 2016.

The government, through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated that under the new arrangement, the refineries would operate as semi-autonomous business entities, buying and refining petroleum products and making remittances to the government coffers.

A statement from the Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ohi Alegbe, in Abuja, quoted Kachikwu to have told Nigerians in Vienna, Austria, that the new plan would begin to yield good results within the next 24 months.
Kachikwu had earlier given the refineries a 90-day fast track ultimatum which is expected to lapse by this  December, he however noted that from available reports, two of the refineries are likely to meet the deadline.

According to him, with the new model,  Nigerians would see a positive dramatic turn in the refinery operations in the country, adding that going forward, the new refinery model would not only meet the petroleum products need of the country but that of the West African sub region.
Currently, Nigeria largely relies on imported petrol to run the economy, a situation that has remained difficult for it to cope with, especially meeting up with huge financial commitments for subsi dy on petrol.

Also, Kachikwu said the government had expressed its readiness to raise funds from international investors and the private sector in 2016 to fund the Joint Venture (JV) cash calls between the NNPC and International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country.
He said already, high level discussions were underway with local and international investors to bridge the perennial JV cash call funding gap.

The minister noted that the initiative is geared towards freeing the government from bearing the burden of funding capital intensive projects in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
Kachikwu further stated that in the years ahead, the NNPC’s over 5000 kilometers of pipelines across the length and breadth of the country would be privatised in order to enhance efficient management of the infrastructure and to bring to the barest minimum the high incidence of pipeline vandalism currently plaguing the sector.

He stated that the NNPC operations were now being transparently and efficiently handled, adding that the corporation now publishes its monthly account, a move which he said has inspired a lot of confidence among investors and improved the perception index of the corporation in a positive way in the eyes of the global community.

 

[ThisDay]