Experts in the oil and gas sector yesterday urged the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari to end the subsidy on petrol.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in different interviews in Lagos and Port-Harcourt that the subsidy had in no way helped the masses.
They urged Buhari to take a critical look at the four refineries if they required a Turn-Around-Maintenance or outright privitisation.
Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Thomas Olawore, said privatisation would end the disruption of the supply chain.
Olawore reiterated that the four refineries should be privatised so that petroleum products would be available and cheap.
He said the country would not have been in the current situation of paying subsidy if the refineries were functioning.
Managing Director, Frontier Oil Ltd., Dada Thomas said that privatisation would bring competition in the downstream sub-sector and check fraud associated with petroleum subsidy payment.
Thomas urged the incoming administration to waste no time in privatising the refineries because the government had no business operating them.
Engineering Manager, Frazimex Engineering Ltd., an oil-servicing firm in Port-Harcourt, Edwin Nwachukwu also urged Buhari to choose only capable and visionary investors who would turn around the refineries.
A former spokesman of PENGASSAN, Oluwaseyi Gambo said that government should have minimal shares in the privitisation of the refineries.
Gambo added that the privitisation would play significant role and compete with the Dangote Group refinery, now under construction.
“The Dangote refinery will produce 500,000 barrels per day (bdp) when completed while the country’s refineries would produce about 1million bpd and this will be healthy for the system,” he said.
He advised that the two unions in the sector should be part of the privatisation process to serve as the eyes of the Nigerian masses.
Gambo urged the president-elect to conduct an audit of the refineries to know their state.
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