The Group Managing Director, Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said that
state-owned refineries would make direct payments into the federation
account from 2016.
The refineries are subsidiaries of the
NNPC, which is the body expected to make the payments. However,
according to a report by The Cable, Kachikwu said the NNPC was adopting a
plan that would give the refineries some sort of autonomy, without
privatising them.
In a statement by Ohi Alegbe, the
corporation’s spokesperson, Kachikwu was quoted as saying high level
discussions were underway with local and international investors to
bridge funding gap in the sector.
Kachikwu said, “The new model is that
refineries would now buy their own crude oil, refine it and make
remittances to the federation account allocation committee.
“They would operate a semi autonomy system that would enable them to run in a profitable manner.”
The statement expressed the federal
government’s readiness to raise funds from international investors and
the private sector in 2016 to fund the joint venture cash calls between
the NNPC and international oil companies operating in the country.
Kachikwu said the initiative was geared
towards preventing the government from bearing the burden of funding
capital intensive projects in the upstream sector of the oil and gas
industry. The minister assured that the NNPC’s over 5000 km of pipelines
across the country would be privatised in order to enhance efficient
management of the infrastructure and bring pipeline vandalism to the
barest minimum.
According to him, in another 24 months,
Nigerians would see a positive change in the refinery model, to meet
needs not only in Nigeria but in the West African sub region.
Speaking on the December deadline for
the refineries, Kachikwu said the reports before him showed that, two of
the refineries were likely to meet the deadline.
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