The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu,
yesterday advocated for the speedy rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries, to skip their being sold as scraps.
He warned that if urgent measures were not taken before the Dangote Refinery becomes operational, the nation’s four refineries might be sold as scraps in 2019.
Kachikwu, who gave the warning at the the stakeholders’ consultative forum on the draft National Gas Policy and National Oil Policy in Abuja, said the only option opened to the country was to ensure that the refineries work within the shortest possible time.
He said: “Refineries would have to work; it is really not an option anymore. And not only should it work, it has to work very quickly. The reality is that if we do not privatise and we do not concession — which is not what we are doing —then we have a responsibility to find private capital to get them to where they should be.
“This is because if we do not get them to work, in 2019, I can assure you that if Dangote system works well, we would have scraps, we won’t have refineries, because by then it would be too late to do anything.”
