The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has advised the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to acquire stakes in local refineries instead of running government-owned ones.
Lokpobiri stated this on Tuesday at the maiden edition of a summit organised by the Crude Oil Refineries Owners Association of Nigeria in Lagos.
In his address, the oil minister noted that the Federal Government is planning to encourage the national oil company to take equity in the upcoming and already established private refineries rather than running them.
Recall that the NNPC capped its stake in the Dangote refinery at 7.2 per cent instead of the initially agreed-upon 20 per cent.
The NNPC was said to have spent about $4bn rehabilitating the moribund government refineries, but none have resumed operations.
For about seven times, the company assured Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery would commence production. However, the situation remains the same as of September ending.
Speaking on Tuesday, Lokpobiri said the government was asking the NNPC to run the four government refineries on a different model, recalling that an advertisement was recently placed by the NNPC to give out the refineries to private sectors for optimal delivery.
“We intend to encourage the national oil company to take up equity with the upcoming and already established private refineries rather than running refineries. We will encourage NNPC Ltd to run the four governmental refineries on a different model. And you will recall that an advertisement was recently placed by the NNPC Ltd to give out refineries to private sectors to run optimally,” he stated.
