Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, has revealed that the House of Representatives is considering the privatization of the four national petroleum refineries located in Port.Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna as one of the strategies to improve the performance of the country’s petroleum sector.
Ugochinyere dropped the hint on Monday during the committee’s visit to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in Abuja.
He stated that the proposal to privatize the refineries is based on the fact that the rehabilitation of the refineries has swallowed funds that would have been sufficient enough to build about three new refineries.
According to him, privatizing the refineries would make them more beneficial to Nigerian citizens since they would provide domestically refined petroleum products.
In his own words, “for decades Nigeria has been on the issue of refineries rehabilitation and huge amounts have been. The funds used could have been used to build about three new refineries and maintain them. So, it is better that these refineries are privatized in order to make them efficient so that Nigerians can get the benefits they require in refining our products domestically.”
Ugochinyere commended NEITI Executive Secretary, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, for the reforms he has been championing in the extractive industries for the benefit of Nigerians. He added that NEITI has taken a praiseworthy position by seeking more investments in the downstream sector as it has to do with the building of more private refineries.
