The announcement made recently by the NNPC head of finance that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations by September 2024 is not going down well with Dr Joseph Obele, an energy expert in Rivers State.
Dr Joesph Obele in a chat with our correspondent said the announcement by the NNPCL is one of those excuses.
He said that Nigerians are tired of the needless failed promises by the federal government.
The former Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria , IPMAN Rivers State Chapter, Dr Obele noted that President Bola Tinubu must have the political will to make the refineries work.
He said that the President must be ready to fight the cabals sabotaging the planned commencement of the refineries.
“The announcement made recently by NNPC head of finance that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations by September 2024 is one of those excuses too many. The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria announced a date for the commencement of the Port Harcourt refinery to be December last year, but the date failed”.
“The GMD of NNPC and minister of Petroleum has likewise announced several dates that didn't see the light of the day. Therefore any new date given by anybody will not be considered as anything serious, but as a joke with the psychology of Nigerians”.
“It is becoming obvious that the factors responsible for the dormant status of the refinery are far from related mechanical or technical issues. The core factor responsible for the delay could be related to the interest of importers of petroleum products from the international market”.
“The Importation of fuel in Nigeria is the biggest racketeering in our country and such forces are capable of affecting the commencement of production at the refinery”.
“The recently announced date by NNPC for the commencement of Port Harcourt Refinery is basically to give hope to Nigerians amid economic hardship occasioned by fuel subsidy removal, even if stakeholders have said the government is still paying subsidy”.
Regarding the long fuel queues at filling stations across the country and the high fuel cost, Dr. Joseph Obele attributes the problem to the decision of the NNPCL to sell to private depot owners instead of marketers.
He said that marketers are purchasing the product at an excessive rate from the private depot owners hence the hike in the prices of petrol in Nigeria.
“The management of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited explained that the queues were due to the recent thunderstorm and logistics challenges that disrupted activities at fuel loading jetties”.
“It is on record that NNPC is the sole supplier of PMS in Nigeria and marketers should be buying from NNPC at the rate of #566 per liter on the NNPC online buying portal. It is important to inform the general public that the NNPC online buying portal for Marketers has been shut down for about three months to date, yet the products imported by NNPC are available with third parties called private depot owners selling to marketers at a rate of #800 and above”.
“A product that NNPC should sell directly to marketers for #566 is not available for marketers, but it is available for third parties that are selling to marketers at outrageous prices. I will urge the general public not to blame filling station operators as it concerns the selling rate, for marketers are selling basically to the corresponding buying rate”.
The former Chairman of IPMAN in Rivers State Dr Obele added that the turbulence or ups and downs of the pricing scale in Nigeria will end when Nigeria stops relying on imported fuel from the international market and start refining here in the country.
He noted that businesses will boom when our refineries commence operations, alongside employment opportunities and a reduction in the inflation index in Nigeria
