Group Managing Director Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mele Kyari has revealed plans by the corporation to fix the nation’s refineries via the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) strategy.
This, he said, was arrived at because the federal government does not have the required capital to fund the project.
He also said the recent hike in price of fuel was necessitated by the need to ensure permanent gains for consumers as well as the nation as an entity.
Kyari stated this Wednesday night while featuring on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme monitored by Blueprint in Abuja.
The GMD explained that the corporation resorted to the BOT strategy due to the dwindling resources resulting from low crude production, falling oil price and OPEC production cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, those that provided the fund would have a part in running the refineries.
“It is a system where people will put their money and operate it with us, especially the Warri and Kaduna refineries,” he said.
Kyari further said the refineries were deliberately shut down because the crude “pipeline network supplying crude to the refineries were completely compromised due to activities of vandals and others who for reasons known to them, do not want the refineries to work.”
The NNPC helmsman further explained that it would have been possible to operate the refineries at 69 per cent capacity, but that the corporation would not get optimum benefits from such decision.
He said: “if you do that, it would be like supplying $100 crude and getting out 70 per cent products.”
Kyari further said the corporation would support other major partners to build refineries stating that “refineries don’t die like cars or assets.”
On the impact of the recent hike in price of petrol on Nigerians, the NNPC boss said: “The pain associated with the increase is temporary, and the long term benefits outweigh the temporary pain.”
He assured that the corporation was engaging the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to make forex accessible for oil marketers.
Kyari also said on the long run, the exchange rate would determine the price of the fuel, insisting that with the structures being put in place by the federal government there won’t be “collateral and huge impact on the price of fuel.”
He further said federal government was convinced that it was time to move to the reality to serve the overall common good.
“Government will be able to fund infrastructure which is good on the long run,” he said.
