At the 2017 edition of the National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC) Conference in Lagos, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, represented by the Deputy Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Olumide Adeleke, said that Nigeria is not about to sell or concession “any” of its refineries. He also added that the government had not done the valuation of the refineries, let alone think of selling them.
This is a different statement from what Kachikwu said concerning the refineries sometime back.
“I said it in very many speeches that if our own refineries do not sit up, we probably, would be selling scrap metals in a matter of years and that is the reality. So, what this project has also done is motivated substantially, the NNPC because to take very seriously my drive to repair the refineries and get them working.” said Kachikwu. The project being referred to is the completion of the Dangote Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos state.
Although, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that Nigeria now has an average cost of production of $23 per barrel; the refineries are still not operating at full capacity owing to the poor state of the refineries and militant attacks.
” We sought externally for resources to finance the rehabilitation of the existing refineries, which was a very tall order, telling someone to invest $1billion in the refineries rehabilitation, with no equity, and wait for incremental volumes of refined products to recoup their investment.” said Kachikwu at the conference.
He further disclosed that the actual rehabilitation work would be carried out by a joint management team of original refinery builders (ORBs) with financers funding the repair work.