Oil marketers have said local refining will save at least N70 per litre off petrol price when it is fully operational.
The National Controller Operations, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mike Osatuyi, said this while speaking on the benefits of the Federal Government investing in functional refineries.
He told The PUNCH on Wednesday, that although the contracts for revamping of refineries had been awarded, it would be a great development for repairs to be completed as soon as possible, to ease the stress and huge finance of importation on the country.
He said, “The contract has been awarded already before the new government came into office. IPMAN doesn’t know the context of the contract, but if the refineries are working, it would cut freight and ship-to-ship transfer costs.
“Not less than N60/N70 per litre will be off if the refineries start working.”
He listed other benefits of operational local refining as reduction in insurance costs, reduction in product delivery time, and increase in employment.
According to him, “Cost of insurance would reduce, and then if we keep importing, it takes about 30 days for ships to arrive in Nigeria and we would have to pay for hiring the vessel.
“But if we refine in the country, products would arrive within one day. There will also be more jobs for the masses. It’s a lot of benefits.”
A former Chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and Chairman/Chief Executive of 11 Plc, Tunji Oyebanji, said marketers did not prefer products importation over local production.
“We want local refineries to work because we don’t enjoy importing,” he said.
Nigeria still relied heavily on petrol importation due to lack of functional local refineries.
Since removal of subsidies on May 29, prices of petrol had shot up tremendously, rising from about N198/N200 per litre to N617 per litre.
Local consumption has since dropped by 30 per cent from 66 million litres per day recorded before subsidies removal.
National President, IPMAN, Chinedu Oknokwo, during the House of Representatives Public Hearing held on Tuesday, said in proffering solutions to the animated social problems of pump price increase of petroleum products, there was need to quickly adopt the global alternative clean energy concept of Compressed Natural Gas.
According to him, CNG would help in powering homes, public and official and private establishments with very minimal costs when compared with other costs.
Port Harcourt refinery to commence operations in December this year – President Tinubu promises Labour leaders
President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday night, met with Leaders of the various Labour unions and promised that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operations by December 2023.
The meeting came after Labour unions commenced a nationwide protest over what it described as ‘’anti-people’ policies introduced by the Tinubu government since its inception on May 29, 2023.
The National presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero and Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo in the statement released, said the president made a series of promises following which they agreed to return to the negotiations table.
“It is pertinent to inform Nigerians that the extent of the success of the protest is underlined by the request of the President of the federal republic of Nigeria; Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu to meet with the leadership of the NLC and TUC in a closed-door session.
The engagement was fruitful that immense mileage was obtained with regards to the issues that bogged down the work of the Presidential Committee on Subsidy removal and necessitated the protest viz; He committed to an immediate restructuring of the framework for engagement in line with the input of the Labour leaders.
He let out a certainty that the Port Harcourt Refinery will commence production by December this year. He pledged to ensure that Agreement is reached on the Wage Award for Nigerian workers immediately.
He promised to unveil a workable roadmap to the CNG alternative next week. On the strength of the president’s pledge and commitment, we have decided to return to a new and reinvigorated dialogue process to allow for full implementation.
Once again, we thank Nigerians while we wait for the Government to fulfill its own part of the understanding as agreed with His Excellency; the President.” the statement read
