By Adewale Sanyaolu
To address the twin challenge of incessant fuel scarcity and foreign exchange constraints, the Federal Government has been advised to fix the nation’s refineries in order to put an end to fuel scarcity.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Oilden Energies, a major player in the oil and gas and maritime sectors with focus on production of high quality lubricants, Mr. Oluwatoni Oladiran, disclosed this at an interactive session with select media in Lagos on Monday.
He lamented that the huge foreign exchange allocated to the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), is taking a negative toll on the economy, thereby depriving other critical sectors the needed forex.
Oladiran said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, must ensure that all it three refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna becomes functional in no distant time in order to guarantee energy security for Nigerians.
The Oilden Energies boss argued that Nigeria must also ensure that it derives maximum value from its crude oil so that by-products which included LFPO, diesel, Kerosene, Jet A1, polypropylene among others could serve the needs of other industries.
“Nigeria should as a matter of urgency begin to add value to its crude oil by refining it, marketing it and exporting same to the international market. By so doing, we would have succeeded in boosting the local economy through massive job creation which subsequently boosts the economy.
Though, the Federal Government has promised to begin operations at the Port Harcourt refinery very soon. By the time that happens, which is the next big deal, our economy will open up further and the country would be the better for it,’’.
On the lubricants sector, Oladiran said the high level of adulteration in the sector is a major disincentive for genuine investors, saying the menace has led to the dearth of many good products.
The lubricant expert maintained that there is a limit to the level of monitoring and tracking that could be carried out by the regulators due to inadequate manpower.
To tackle the rising wave of adulteration, Oladiran advised lubricant producers to ensure that they put in place an effective distribution channel for their products that would guard against activities of third party agents.
‘‘If you go to the market and see any product labeled Oilden that is definitely not my product because I supply directly to the end users.
It is even so bad now that some adulterators use palm oil as a major addictive for lubricants production.That is why there seems to be rampant cases of damaged engines and transmission. If you use contaminated fuel, the engine could still be fixed but once the engine comes in contact with substandard lubricant, that is end of that engine.
On base oil which is a major raw material for lubricants production, Oladiran further called on the Federal Government to ensure that the refineries come on stream so that local manufacturers could begin to access it.
He lamented that the distortions in the foreign exchange market has negatively impacted the lubricants sector because of the high cost of base oil which are imported