Oil Marketers Back Potential Privatisation of Refineries
Oil marketers and industry stakeholders have thrown their weight behind the proposed sale of Nigeria's refineries under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL, calling for transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability in the process.
They noted that the sale or privatisation of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, which have gulped trillions of naira in rehabilitation and maintenance with little or no result, will finally open the downstream sector to competition, ensure better pricing, and stop what many described as a financial black hole.
Their reactions follow the recent revelation by the NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, that rehabilitation works on the 445,000 barrels per day capacity refineries were not yielding the desired results due to how obsolete the facilities have become over the years.
Ojulari, in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the just concluded 9th OPEC international seminar in Vienna, Austria, admitted that the company is currently reassessing its refineries strategies and aims to finalise the review by year-end.