Abuja opens bid, sets January 29 deadline to submit Expression of Interest
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Abuja has finally opened a bid to sell off Port Harcourt Refinery once the current rehabilitation is completed, after years of agitation for its privatisation by Labour and opinion leaders for costing billions of naira yearly in maintenance without producing a litre of refined petroleum.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) on 15 December 2023 announced the mechanical completion of the refurbishment and opened the bid on Monday with January 29 set as deadline for the submission of Expression of Interest (EO).
“The NNPC Limited is seeking to engage reputable and credible Operations & Maintenance (O&M) companies to operate and maintain one of its refineries, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), to ensure reliability and sustainability towards meeting the nation’s fuel supply and energy security obligations,” it announced on its website.
The NNPC said after bid closes on January 29, documents should be submitted electronically by February 26.
The bid winner is required to state the current percentage of its management and total workforce who are Nigerian nationals.
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Falae urges Abuja to fix refineries and sell them to capable private entities
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Finance Minister, Olu Falae, had also last December advocated for Abuja to repair the national refineries and sell them off to private entities capable of handling them efficiently.
“The government should repair and sell refineries to those who can run them. Crude oil is our national endowment and should be sold at the cost of production plus little margin,” he argued on Channels Television.
“My belief is that Nigeria’s problem with fuel and its price will be substantially resolved when we are able to repair and recommission our refineries and sell them to those who can run them.”
Abuja can’t run refineries, Falae insists
Falae insisted the federal government is not capable of running the refineries and the President does not have to be the Petroleum Minister.
He also expressed concern over the challenges of the manufacturing industry, citing unstable electricity supply as the major problem.
“The manufacturing sector is almost dead in Nigeria … once power is inadequate, manufacturing will suffer. Power is the most important thing affecting manufacturing.”
IPMAN rejects refineries’ sale canvassed by Tinubu’s tax Tsar Oyedele
However, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) National Controller, Mike Osatuyi, has argued it is best for the country to have its own refineries as against selling them off as being canvassed by Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee Chairman, Taiwo Oyedele.
“Nigerians would say if only our refineries were working, then we’ll be fine. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that. In fact, Nigerians should come together and say please make sure that our refineries don’t work. We should sell them,” Oyedele said at an independence anniversary event at The Platform in Lagos.
IPMAN is against selling off the refineries but other stakeholders who have expressed support for Oyedele’s view include Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG).
“The National Assembly said we have spent over N10 trillion maintaining our refineries even when they have not produced anything,” Oyedele stressed at the event tagged ‘Africa Rising Continent – Nigeria’s Strategic Role’.
“If Nigerian refineries process crude oil, unless we deal with our inefficiency, one litre of petrol will be the most expensive in the world. You would have succeeded in replacing the subsidy at the pump with subsidy of the refineries.
“What is our vision? What is the Nigerian dream? Even I had to Google it, and when I did, I really couldn’t find anything.
“The closest thing I found was in the recent document called Agenda 2050, which was developed by the immediate past administration. It has the vision, the mission, and it has objectives.
“I know most people remember monetary policies and if not for anything, the recent naira redesign reminded all of us how bad things can get when you get just one policy wrong.
“Sometimes it’s not just about the economy, activities, values and financial losses but about lives which are irreplaceable.”
Policies to help reform the economy
Oyedele listed industrial policy, environmental, and energy policies, among eight policies that could help reform the economy.
“When the fuel subsidy was removed, the pump price of PMS [petrol] went up by 200 per cent. Do you know what happened? Traffic in Lagos disappeared. One of the reasons it disappeared was because a lot of people could no longer maintain buying fuel to be on the road and they parked their cars.
“Do you think those are the upper-class people? No. The upper-class people will just complain briefly and they’ll pay and still move on. They drove exactly as they drove before and after the removal.
“The lower and middle-class people who had [imported] Tokunbo used cars – those cars break down regularly, and they visit the vulcanisers regularly and the mechanic.
“Since those people are parking their vehicles at home, the vulcaniser is not finding jobs to do; so is the mechanic. It’s not just the vulcaniser, the apprentices and the family they support – life has become impossible, but we all agree it’s a necessary policy.
“But we need to react and respond in a way that is robust enough so we can take some of those pains off our people.”
