The call has been made for the Federal Government to sell its ownership of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries to finance modular refineries. These three refineries are managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria emphasized the necessity of selling the refineries to address the ongoing fuel crisis in the country. Despite efforts by the NNPC, fuel queues persist, affecting transportation costs. The Publicity Secretary of CORAN expressed dismay over the $1bn spent on rehabilitating the Port Harcourt refinery, which has yet to commence production after multiple delays.
The proposal is to allocate intervention funds to modular refineries, enabling the government to have stakes in these facilities. The current fuel scarcity issue is attributed to insufficient locally refined products, leading to the burden of importing fuel, especially with subsidy payments involved. The suggestion is to utilize the funds spent on the Port Harcourt refinery to develop multiple modular refineries capable of producing a significant amount of petroleum products daily.
The focus is on empowering modular refineries as a quick solution to the recurring fuel scarcity problem. It is estimated that supporting existing modular refineries could significantly reduce the reliance on imported fuel within a short timeframe. The discussion also touches on the need for the private sector to play a more prominent role in driving the oil refinery segment, as seen in countries with self-sufficiency in petroleum products.
NNPC’s confirmation of spending over N9.3tn on petrol importation in the past year, despite initially denying subsidy payments, has raised concerns about the challenges faced in importing an adequate amount of petrol for the Nigerian market.