Govt Has No Business Running Refinery, Says Osinbajo

The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday reaffirmed that the federal government has no business running refineries in the country.

He spoke at a virtual meeting organised for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Social Media bloggers and influencers at the ruling party’s secretariat in Abuja.

The Vice President said the government will rather bank on private investors in refineries, adding that the government will encourage investors to take advantage of the new policy.

The Vice President noted that the challenges facing the government-owned refineries will persist if left in the hands of the government, stressing that the government will continue to explore cheaper gas resources as an alternative.

Expressing confidence that the energy crisis in the country will improve by the first quarter of next year when most of the modular refineries would have come on stream.

He said, “If the refinery is left in the hands of the government, it will continue to experience the same problem it is experiencing now. I do not think that it is the business of the government to run the refinery. It should be the business of the private sector, which is why we are trying to focus on assisting the private sector to develop modular refineries.

“There is a 100,000 barrels per day capacity refinery about to come on stream and we hope it will by the next year. It is completely private and closely located near the Port Harcourt refinery so that it can share the facilities of the Port Harcourt refinery. We are hopeful it will come on stream in the first quarter of next year.

“There are also six modular refineries that are almost ready. There is a Niger Delta Petroleum refinery in Delta state, there is another one in Imo, there is also another modular refinery in Edo

State.

“We engaged the oil-producing communities to find a new vision for the Niger Delta and we tried to encourage modular refinery that will give the people in the oil-producing states a stake so that the modular refinery is not just private but the people there have some stake and equity.”