No plans to sell refineries – Presidency

 
In a bid to avert the planned strike by Nigeria’s two main oil unions in the country, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), over the proposed sale of the four oil refineries in the country, the Presidency has assured that  it has no plans to do such.
The unions had said “if the government does not back down,” they will start by halting the loading of crude cargoes and gradual shutdown of oil and gas production.
The unions had stated further that the plan to sell the refineries was “against the overall national interest and in the interest of a few,” adding that the plan will “transfer government monopoly to cartels that will dictate the market.”
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Allison Maduekwe had in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa in London disclosed that the refineries would be sold.
“We would like to see major infrastructure entities, such as refineries, moving out of government hands into the private sector. Government does not want to be in the business of running major infrastructure entities and we haven’t done a very good job at it over the years,” she said.
But the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati confirmed to State House correspondents that the Federal Government has no plans to sell the refineries .
He called on NUPENG and PENGASSAN to halt their planned strike, as government had no plans to sell the refineries.
Abati said: “Government is not going to sell any refineries. There is no such plans and there is no presidential approval for such. Nobody, not even the  minister of petroleum  has powers to sell any government property,” he said.
A presidential audit of the country’s refineries  led by a former minister of finance, Kalu Idika Kalu, had  recommended the sale of the refineries due to inadequate government funding and “sub-optimal performance.”
The four refineries, located in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt  have a combined capacity of 445,000 bpd.
Though former president Olusegun Obasanjo tried to sell the Kaduna and Warri refineries, it was  reversed by the  government of  late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.