By Adewale Sanyaolu
Stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency take steps to reactivate the country’s ailing refineries functional.
With three refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna with a nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, Nigerians have been wondering why the government has continued to encourage massive importation of refined petroleum products to meet local demand even when the foreign currency requiremens are fast tinning out while the three refineries have remained moribund for several years.
The heavy dependence on imported petrol has continued to put the Naira under pressure as the country filters a larger chunk of its foreign exchange on imported petrol.
Last week, the naira exchange for N940 to $1, a development that led to the return of fuel queues as marketers threatened to suspend further importation of petrol over spiraling rise in exchange rate amid rumours of another round of price increase from N617 per litre to about N800 per litre to cushion the effect on the rise in exchange rate, a development Federal Government seems worried about.
Also last week, the Nigeria Extractive Industry Extractive Transparency Initiative(NEITI) in its audit report presented to the media and CSOs, said Nigeria spent N13.7 trillion on fuel subsidy from 2005 -2021.
But, to stem the continuous pressure on the exchange rate, reduce the massive level of petrol imports and reflate the economy, President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Mr. Billy Harry, said the sustainable solution to the country’s frequent energy crisis was for the turnaround of its ailing refineries to become productive.
The PETROAN boss advised government not to rely on a private sector led investment in refinery which promised to deliver petrol in the first week of August but hasn’t lived to that promise.
Harry, explained that marketers who had products before the spike in foreign exchange are concerned about how to restock under a N900 to $1 exchange rate. He maintained that the foreign exchange value have impacted negatively on the buying power of the Nigerian naira, thus given speculation to those who are given licenses to import that they may not be able to raise $25 million to $30 million to import a cargo of petrol.
Harry disclosed that since the marketers are not sure of the next source of foreign exchange, which eventually led to supply being lesser than demand.
‘’These are market factors that will play out and show some pockets of queues will pop up. For me I personally observed that some retail outlets are just using one pump to dispense but upon close examination, I discovered that they are truly short of supply and only selling from tanks that had products’.
Also joining the call for a revamp of the refineries non-governmental organisation, Future Nigeria Movement (FNM),which advised that President Bola Tinubu, that Nigerians were more concerned about revamping the nation’s moribund refineries than the N5 billion palliative announced by the Presidency to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
Leader of the group, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, stated this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State at the weekend while reacting to the palliative sum which would be distributed by various state governors.
Wechie wondered why Nigerian government should be concerned about sedative instead of curative measures in tackling the country’s challenges.
He said: “The N5 billion palliative by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is a clear indication that the government realises that the removal of the fuel subsidy is impacting seriously on Nigerians.
“It is arguably a show of sensitivity knowing that everything in this country revolves around the energy sector. It is, however, the submission of the Future Nigeria Movement (FNM) that the best subsidy that Nigerians long to see is to ensure that our state-owned refineries are made to work again and this must be treated as a matter of national emergency.
The group charged the Federal Government to be more innovative in its approach to solving the teething national problems with all the competence and skills needed.