THISDAY

IPMAN Seeks Reopening of Refineries

- In Warrior

Sylvester Idowu

As a way of sustaining the economy at this critical period of global meltdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Independen­t Petroleum Marketers Associatio­n of Nigeria (IPMAN), has advised President Muhammadu Buhari, to immediatel­y direct Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), to reopen all refineries in the country.

Chairman Delta State chapter of the IPMAN, Zino Onaemor, who gave the advice in Warri, said there could never be a better time for the federal government to look inwards on how to improve the nation’s economy than now.

He opined that the nation’s earnings from oil revenues would continue to depreciate as long as the coronaviru­s pandemic continues globally, noting that the earlier the government considers the appropriat­e usage of its crude through local production to sustain the economy, the better for the nation.

“We are currently faced with a sad situation that requires a very drastic approach to keep our economy floating before we run into a more difficult and pitiable situation that could be worse that what we experience­d during the recession period in this country.

“Since we are operating a mono economy and the people that buy oil from us are presently being devastated by the coronaviru­s, thereby reducing the global prices of oil drasticall­y, what a sensible government should be doing right now is making use of our crude by refining it locally to sustain our economy.

“We have our oil and we cannot drink it; let the federal government direct NNPC to put the nation’s refineries back on stream, especially the Warri Refinery.

“We are aware they have been importing petroleum products to sustain the demands in the country, but if our refineries are working, it would go a long way in reducing these burden as these refineries can go into production to reduce the over dependent on importatio­n.

“Our refineries have the capacity and full potential of refining all petroleum products petrol, diesel and kerosene we needed for our daily consumptio­n if they can be well managed and maintained to run at maximum capacity”, he said.

Onaemor also queried the rationale behind government’s decision to reduce only the prize of PMS (fuel), and nothing was about diesel and kerosene that were equally being imported, stating that if the government could reduce petrol price, then it should also effect reduction in the prices of the two other products to reduce the burden on the masses.

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