Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that Nigeria’s refineries will never work as long as the government continues to control them.
He faulted claims made by President Bola Tinubu in August, through former presidential spokesman, Dele Alake, that the “Port Harcourt refineries will start production by December 2023 after the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation contract between NNPCL and Italian firm, Maire Tecnimont SpA.”
Nigeria imports 80 percent of its refined petroleum products despite owning four refineries in Warri in Delta State; Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Kaduna state.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the cost (including freight) of petroleum products imports into Nigeria doubled over a five-year period from about US$8.4 billion in 2017 to US$16.2 billion (indicating an annual average of US$11.1 billion), before rising further to US$23.3 billion by end-2022.
The apex bank said this could skyrocket to US$30 billion annually by 2027 should the country continue to rely on petroleum imports.
To drastically cut down this, the nation’s refineries must be working at optimum capacity.
However, Obasanjo said that this could not be because the government continues to insist on controlling the refineries.
The former president spoke in an interview with The Cable over the weekend.
“They will not work as long as the government is keeping hold of them. When I was president, I invited Shell to a meeting. I told them I wanted to hand over the refineries for them to help us run. They bluntly told me they would not. I was shocked. I repeated the request and they stood their ground.
“When the meeting was over, I asked their big man (MD) to wait behind for a little chat. Then I asked him why they were so hesitant on not taking over the refineries. He said did I want to hear the truth? I said yes.
“He listed four reasons. One, he said Shell makes its money from upstream and that is where its interest lies. Two, he said they only do downstream or retail as a matter of service. Three, he said our refineries would be bad business for them, that globally, companies are going for bigger refineries because of the economics of refineries. Four, he said there is too much corruption in refineries.
“I thanked him for his honesty. I knew we had a big problem in our hands. I had virtually given up hope on the refineries when God did a miracle. Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola approached me and said they would be interested in buying two of the four refineries.
“They said they would buy 51 percent stake in Port Harcourt and Kaduna. I was over the moon. I said, finally, this burden would be taken off the neck of the government. They offered $761 million and paid in two instalments.
“Unfortunately, Umaru (President Yar’Adua) cancelled the sale and returned the refineries to NNPC. Today, we are still where we were. Someone told me Tinubu said refineries would work by December. I told the person the refineries would not work. This is based on the information I received from Shell when I was president,” Obasanjo said.
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