Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report
The federal government is considering a new operational model for the four local refineries from 2016.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said that under the new arrangement, the refineries would operate as semi-autonomous business entities, buying and refining petroleum products and making remittances to the government coffers.
Kachikwu said in Vienna, Austria, that the new plan would begin to yield good results within the next 24 months.
The minister had earlier given the refineries a 90-day fast track ultimatum, which is expected to lapse this December.
He however, noted that from available reports, two of the refineries are likely to meet the deadline.
According to him, with the new model, Nigerians would see a positive dramatic turn in the refinery operations in the country and that the new refinery model would not only meet the petroleum products need of the country but that of the West African sub-region.
Nigeria relies largely on imported petrol to run the economy, a situation that has remained difficult for it to cope with, especially meeting up with huge financial commitments for subsidy on petrol.
Kachikwu also said the government had expressed its readiness to raise funds from international investors and the private sector in 2016 to fund the Joint Venture (JV) cash calls between the NNPC and International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country.
He said already, high level discussions were underway with local and international investors to bridge the perennial JV cash call funding gap.
The minister noted that the initiative is geared towards freeing the government from bearing the burden of funding capital intensive projects in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
Kachikwu said that the nation’s over 5000km of pipelines across the length and breadth of the country would be privatised in order to enhance efficient management of the infrastructure and to bring to the barest minimum the high incidence of pipeline vandalism currently plaguing the sector.