The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has
lamented the federal government’s attitude to
the building of new refineries, describing as
flimsy any excuses given on funding.
The umbrella body for oil workers in the
country stated that the federal government
could have built new refineries if it wanted to
as Nigeria’s crude output for 16 days can fund
the building of a new refinery.
“To build a refinery today is about US$4 billion
(N640 billion). We produce not less than 2.4
million barrel of crude oil on a daily basis and
we sell at $108, which is the price all over the
world. Going by that calculation, we are
making about N41.2 billion daily,” Mr.
Folorunsho Ogini, Chairman, PENGASSAN,
Lagos Zone told Vanguard in an interview.
Ogini also decried the in the passage of the
Petroleum Industry Bill, a bill he noted would
address some of the challenges Nigeria’s oil
and gas sector faces.
“The question is; why is the PIB not signed
into law? Who is afraid of the PIB? These
people know quite well that if PIB is signed into
law, all these problems confronting the
nation’s oil and gas sector have been
addressed by the bill.
“These refineries we are talking about, they
were built pre-1989 and those who built the
refineries recently declared that the
technologies used in those refineries had been
phased out. What is stopping us from building
more refineries?
“The next question you will ask is, where is
this money going? When you look at our roads,
it is nothing to write home about. In the issue
of Education, you are living witnesses to when
lecturers went on strike for over five months.
Electricity; we do not have and infrastructure
generally, in every ramification, you cannot
equate us with ordinary Ghana.
“The question that is begging for an answer is,
if you are making over N41 billion daily, why is
poverty still ravaging the country? We have the
capacity to produce more than 2.4 million
barrels per day, but because of the ceiling by
the Organisation of Petroleum Export
Countries, OPEC, which we are a member,”
said Ogini.
“Singapore is a country that does not have
crude oil, they import, yet they have about 62
refineries. They buy the crude, refine and
make huge profit. Why is that Nigeria, that has
the crude and the manpower is wasting
because we cannot build refineries.”
The PIB if passed, according to Ogini will also
address the problems confronting the nation’s
refineries and how to make the refineries
work, with a Turn Around Maintenance, TAM
already scheduled.
The contents of the PIB which portrays a great
future for the country’s oil and gas sector
informed PENGASSAN’s decision to kick
against the sale of the refineries, according to
Ogini.
“What many people do not know is that, the
PIB has already taken into consideration all
that is needed for our refineries to work and be
a success story. Do you know what, we
discovered that government wanted to rush
the sale of the refineries because all the spare
parts for the TAM are already in the ship
coming to Nigeria and will arrive at any
moment?
“That was why some people were pressuring
government to sell the refineries as scraps so
that when the spare parts come, they would
take the spare parts to do the TAM and tell
Nigerians that they have done the magic and
that the refineries are now working.
“We have been talking about TAM for more
than 10 years. Late General Sani Abacha
awarded the contract twice for the TAM, but
nobody did anything in spite the fact that the
contract sum was paid. Till today, government
has not apprehended anybody.
“We insisted that no, you cannot sell the
refineries, you must wait for the spare parts to
come, do the TAM and let us see what would
happen next. Because they are people that
want to rip off the nation from the sale, they
were pressuring the government,” the Lagos
PENGASSAN chairman said.
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