The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, this week,said that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has not been authorized by President Muhammed Buhari to privatize the three refineries that are currently operational in the country.
Kachikwu made the declaration while speaking at the official presentation of the ISO 9001:2008 Certificate to the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Eleme.
Kachikwu, who also doubles as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, said this in response to a plea by a stakeholder in the oil sector that the nation’s refineries should not be sold to private investors.
He restated that there was no plan to sell the refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, adding that the President only gave an approval to get investors to pump into them in order to achieve the desired result.
According Kachikwu, “We have the mandate to deliver value and money to Nigeria. So we will not privatize our refineries. Rather, we have the approval to seek funding that will take us to a higher level in production.”
