President-elect Muhammadu Buhari speaking out about the current fuel issues Nigeria is facing.
Here are excerpts from a recent interview he had with Daily Trust:
One
burning issue is fuel subsidy. I believe you are aware of the queues in
major cities like Lagos and Abuja. The fuel importers say they are
unsure of the direction of the new government in this area. Have you
considered maintaining or withdrawing this subsidy or are you
questioning whether it didn’t exist at all?
One
of the problems I have, other than the military, is the petroleum
industry where I served for three and a half years under General
Obasanjo. When people start talking about this subsidy I honestly get
confused. I will tell you this, and I hope it will answer what you want
to know. Back then we had a refinery in Port Harcourt, which was
refining 30,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude.
Later,
it was upgraded to refine 100,000 barrels a day. Another refinery was
built in Port Harcourt to refine 150,000 barrels per day of Nigerian
crude. So, Port Harcourt alone had the capacity to refine 250,000
barrels per day of Nigerian crude.
But
when I found myself as the Minister of Petroleum I set up another
refinery in Warri for 100, 000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude and the
Kaduna refinery a 100, 000 barrels per day. So Nigeria built capacity
to refine 450,000 a day.
Four Hundred
thousands of which is purely Nigerian crude, but 50,000 was imported.
The type of crude could be Venezuelan, which could be a bit heavier. But
the lighter ones – kerosene, aviation fuel, diesel, PMS of different
grades could be produced from our crude because Nigerian crude is about
the best in the world.
If you could
recall, after finishing as Minister of Petroleum, I subsequently became
Head of State. You remember, I appointed Professor Tam David West as the
Minister of Petroleum. When we rounded up bunkers, collected their
illegal jetties and allowed jetties for only big firms which were doing
production and development in the country, we were shocked that we had
too much fuel.
We had to begin to
export 100,000 barrels per day. Don’t forget that we didn’t stop at
building refineries, we built more than 20 depots during my time, from
Port Harcourt to Ilorin, Makurdi, Suleija, Maiduguri and Kano. More than
3,000 pipelines were laid to connect them. A number of stations were
also built to take the trailers off the road, save lives and the
infrastructure on the road. It is more economical because each trailer
uses fuel.
We did all that in this
country and we didn’t borrow any money as far as I know. It’s Nigerian
money. From each Nigerian crude, whether Akwa Ibom, Bonny Light or
whatever it is, you can work out how much products it will give you; how
much petrol it will give you; how much diesel it will give you if you
want to produce diesel. We could tell how much Nigerian crude cost, the
cost of transportation from there to the refinery, the cost of refining,
the cost of transportation to the pump stations and maybe 5 per cent go
for overhead. I can understand if Nigerians pay for those costs. But
somebody is saying he is subsidizing Nigerians. Who is subsidizing who?
But they argue that the price should not be the same in Lagos and Daura, for example?
It has to be the same because it is the Nigerian crude.
It has to be the same because it is the Nigerian crude.
But they consider the cost of transportation?
Why didn’t it make any difference when we were around? Why did we build the network of pipelines? Why did we build the network of depots? What can Nigerians benefit from the God-given gift of petroleum? No refinery is built unless there is an in-depth research that there is enough reserve of up to six layers to be produced.
Why didn’t it make any difference when we were around? Why did we build the network of pipelines? Why did we build the network of depots? What can Nigerians benefit from the God-given gift of petroleum? No refinery is built unless there is an in-depth research that there is enough reserve of up to six layers to be produced.
The argument I have heard is that refineries are aged. Mostly, they are performing at less than half of their capacity…?
You can’t defend these corrupt and incompetent people. You can’t defend them. There used to be what they call turn-around-maintenance. You close the refinery in order to overhaul and clean it. What we did: we asked our producers, we need various refined products of this type at this time when the refineries are being cleaned. Take this type of Nigerian crude and bring us the refined products.
You can’t defend these corrupt and incompetent people. You can’t defend them. There used to be what they call turn-around-maintenance. You close the refinery in order to overhaul and clean it. What we did: we asked our producers, we need various refined products of this type at this time when the refineries are being cleaned. Take this type of Nigerian crude and bring us the refined products.
What
we don’t need, we will calculate and pay you as fees for refining and
transportation. If it is more than what the crude can handle, then we
take it from the treasury. But you are trying to justify all these
frauds by saying the refineries are aged.
Of course, they are actually aged?
They said the refineries are aged. The pipelines are leaking. There is vandalisation. Who ordered the vandalisation?
They said the refineries are aged. The pipelines are leaking. There is vandalisation. Who ordered the vandalisation?
Does it suggest that you don’t believe in the subsidy? So, you are not going to agree to its continuation in anyway?
I would like to be on ground and find out what really has been going wrong. Why is it that people are doing round-tripping with the Nigerian products and take money from the treasury? Some people are still in court. You know about it. So, I’m not taking anything for granted. But I will try and find out what went wrong.
I would like to be on ground and find out what really has been going wrong. Why is it that people are doing round-tripping with the Nigerian products and take money from the treasury? Some people are still in court. You know about it. So, I’m not taking anything for granted. But I will try and find out what went wrong.
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