Nigeria spends N120bn yearly on idle refineries - Petroleum Engineers

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigeria Council has stated that the country spends more than N120 billion on its non-performing refineries annually.

The group made the statement citing reports of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and called for the outright sale of refineries to save the country huge resources.

Mr Joe Nwakwue, Chairman, SPE Nigeria Council, speaking ahead of the SPE Nigeria Energy Industry Transformation Summit, stated that refineries are important national assets.

He also added that it is in the best interest of the country that the refineries are run from commercial perspective. He however continued that the private sector can do that better than the government.

“It’s important to recognize that it serves no purpose that we have refineries that are sitting idle across the country. They don’t just seat idle, we still spend money to keep them idle.

“If you look at the annual report of NNPC, you will see clearly about N120 billion operating loss for these facilities and its consistent over the years. If we keep them next year that is how much loss we are going to incur as a nation.

“It is not in our national interest to continue to pump money into things that are not adding value. From that perspective, it’s only reasonable to say that we should have sold these assets long time ago to those who can run them. I’m very sure that assuming we take that step; our exchange rate won’t be what it is today. Assuming we sold it 10 years ago, today we might have exited import completely,” he said.

Speaking on the upcoming event, Nwakwue said that the 3-day online summit tagged, “Changing Global Energy Landscape: Strategies for Industry Sustainability”, will offer the country and key stakeholders directions to remain relevant in a changing energy world.

Vanguard