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HomeEnergyKachikwu seeks early repairs of refineries

Kachikwu seeks early repairs of refineries

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday advocated for the speedy rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries, to skip their being sold as scraps.

He warned that if urgent measures were not taken before the  Dangote Refinery becomes operational,   the nation’s four refineries might be sold as scraps in 2019.

Kachikwu, who gave the warning at the the stakeholders’ consultative forum on the draft National Gas Policy and National Oil Policy in Abuja, said the only option opened to the country was to ensure that the refineries work within the shortest possible time.

He said: “Refineries would have to work; it is really not an option anymore. And not only should it work, it has to work very quickly. The reality is that if we do not privatise and we do not concession — which is not what we are doing —then we have a responsibility to find private capital to get them to where they should be.

“This is because if we do not get them to work, in 2019, I can assure you that if Dangote system works well, we would have scraps, we won’t have refineries, because by then it would be too late to do anything.”

The minister however sought efforts to address the issue of cost of production in the petroleum industry, to bring down the cost to a reasonable and manageable level.

He said that crude oil is still produced at $27 per barrel in Nigeria, adding that no decent country would produce at that amount at a period when oil price is unpredictable as it is now.

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He said: “They are lots of things we still need to address. Cost is a key issue. We are still at $27 per barrels. No decent country would produce oil at $27 per barrel at a time when the pricing is unpredictable. Again, we are going to try to get those figures below $18 per barrel.”

The minister noted that the Federal Government is committed to fully deregulating the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. He said while the process have started, and since it is a continuing process, the government would continue fine-tuning  it until it gets to where it should be.

“At every given time in the history of every country, you will always have partial deregulation. The reason been that you have to catch up each time and make an amendment, and even if it is just one day, you might have some level of subsidy for that one or two days before it is removed.

“What is important is the goal post; where are we headed; where we are headed is to try and free the industry, so that it can do its own rules, set its own prices itself,” he said.

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