Atedo Peterside, the founder, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc has urged the FG to sell the Port Harcourt refinery to core investors as a $1.5 billion rehabilitation budget should be subject to an informed national debate.
Mr. Peterside disclosed this in a social media statement on Sunday morning.
He said, “FG should halt $1.5bn approval for repair of Port Harcourt refinery and subject this brazen & expensive adventure to an informed national debate.
“Many experts prefer that this refinery is sold ‘as is’ by BPE to core-investors with proven capacity to repair it with their own funds,” he said.
Several Nigerians have at different times called on the FG to privatise the refineries and avoid years of losses from them, but the management of the NNPC has continued to insist it will rehabilitate them and continue to own them.
A report published by NNPC in 2020 has shown that Nigeria’s three refineries still cost the country N10.23 billion in expenses.
The NNPC disclosed in the report that the three refineries, located in Warri, Port-Harcourt and Kaduna, processed no crude because of the rehabilitation works being carried out on them.
The Port-Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (PHRC) has the capacity of producing 210,000 barrels per day, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC) can produce 110,000 barrels per day while the Warri Refining Petrochemical Company Limited (WRPC) has a 125, 000 barrels per day production capacity.
What you should know: There are currently five (5) refineries in Nigeria; of which four (4) plants are owned by the Nigerian Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), while the fifth is owned and operated by Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR).
In case you missed it: Nairametrics reported last week that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of $1.5 billion for the immediate rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State.