Obasanjo lists 4 reasons Nigeria’s refineries will never work

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed the real reason the four oil refineries in Nigeria will never work.

The four refineries are located in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna states.

Obasanjo said the refineries will never work as long as the government continues to hold onto them, Leadership reported.

The former president who stated this in an interview with TheCable published on Tuesday, September 5, said Shell Oil Development Company turned down his offer for them to run the refineries.

He disclosed that after much persuasion the managing director of Shell, at the time, listed four reasons why the oil company wouldn’t get involved in running Nigeria’s refineries, including “too much corruption in refineries.”

Recall that President Bola Tinubu last month assured that the petroleum refinery in Port Harcourt will start working by December 2023.

But responding to a question on the state of Nigeria’s refineries in the interview, Obasanjo said, “They will not work as long as the government is keeping hold of them. When I was president, I invited Shell to a meeting. I told them I wanted to hand over the refineries for them to help us run. They bluntly told me they would not. I was shocked."

Speaking further, Obasanjo listed the four reasons the refineries will never work according to Shell;

“I repeated the request and they stood their ground. When the meeting was over, I asked their big man (MD) to wait behind for a little chat. Then I asked him why they were so hesitant on not taking over the refineries. He said did I want to hear the truth? I said yes. He listed four reasons.

1. One, he said Shell makes its money from upstream and that is where its interest lies.

2. Two, he said they only do downstream or retail as a matter of service.

3. Three, he said our refineries would be bad business for them, and that globally, companies are going for bigger refineries because of the economics of refineries.

4. Fourth, he said there is too much corruption in refineries.