Obasanjo Writes Off NNPC Refineries, Says Will Never Work Again

FORMER President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has written off government-owned refineries, saying they will never work again.
The former military head of state has consistently maintained this stance, despite criticism.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu, three months after taking office, assured that the Port Harcourt Refinery would start production by December 2023, after the completion of the rehabilitation contract between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Italian firm, Maire Tecnimont SpA.
However, speaking on Sony Irabor Live, in a recent interview, Obasanjo restated his position about, insisting: “One of the lessons that I learnt is that PPP (public-private partnership) works.
“Look, one project that has not been destroyed by the government in Nigeria is the NLNG (Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas), where the private sector has 51 per cent and the Nigerian government has 49 per cent.
“See what we did with Nigerian railways. See what we did with the national shipping company. See what we are doing now, even with the NNPC. The NNPC has refineries, and I said to people that it will never work. And a man had the audacity to say, ‘am I a chemical engineer?”
Obasanjo recalled how he tried to convince Shell to run the refineries, but could not succeed, noting: “When I was there, I called Shell. I said, ‘look, please, I beg you, come and take 10 per cent equity and run the refinery for us.’ They said no.
“I said, ‘okay, if you don’t want to take equity, don’t take equity, come and run the refineries. They said no,”
“So, I called a top Shell official and I said, ‘Tell me, be honest with me. Why don’t you want to handle this?’ He said first, they want to let me know that they make most of their profits on the upstream, not the downstream.
“Number Two, he said our refineries are too small. This was when I was an elected President. He said our refineries are too small. One is 60,000 barrels and another is 100,000 barrels. He said refineries at that time were in the range of 250,000 barrels to 300,000 barrels.
“Number Three, he said our refineries are not well-maintained. We call quacks and amateurs to come and maintain our refineries. The refineries are not in good order.
“He said, ‘Number four, there’s too much corruption around our refineries, and they don’t want to be part of that.”