Major Problem Of Warri Refinery Is Lack Of Crude, Says Esele

Major Problem Of Warri Refinery Is
Lack Of Crude, Says Esele

FORMER President of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN)
and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Peter
Esele disclosed yesterday that the major problem
of the country’s refineries is lack of adequate
crude allocation to refine.
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, he
said that the country’s refineries are working, and
wondered why crude is not being allocated to
Warri Refinery often by the authorities concern.
“The Warri Refinery is not as bad as it is being
painted. The major problem is that it has no
crude to refine often. Port Harcourt Refinery
worked for 21 days in November last year and
generated billions of naira. What has happened
since then? I cannot confirm, but there is a
school of thought which says that the refineries
are being painted bad so that they can be sold to
some vested interests at a give-away prices.
“Why is crude not allocated to our refineries
often, whereas we export crude often to refine
abroad? Why do we believe so much in carrying
crude outside to refine? This is a food for thought
for the incoming government”, he queried.
On the ongoing row between government and
marketers over subsidy payment, the labour
activist blamed the government for lack of proper
documentation of the subsidy transaction.
“If the government feels that the marketers are
defrauding Nigerians, there are many ways to nip
it in the bud. There is nothing wrong for the
Minister of Finance and the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to come out
with documents that authenticate marketers’
claim or otherwise.
“After all, there are paper trails to confirm the
movement of vessels from where they were
loaded to their destinations. I am aware that in
the past, they manipulate paper trails but there
are other ways of tracking such manipulations. So
one can easily know how many vessels that are
on the sea coming to Nigeria. There are systems
to monitor all these, but either by commission or
omission, people who are responsible for this
have deliberately decided that they are not
interested,” Esele said.
On the call for subsidy removal, he said: “Before
we do that, we have to ask ourselves we have
scarcity now, NNPC keeps telling us that they
have 90 days stock. Marketers said they are not
importing again, the question is where are the
NNPC 90 days stock? It is now that Nigerians
need the NNPC 90 days stock to caution the
effect of the fuel scarcity.
“If NNPC is doing reconciliation, let them give
Nigerians only 30 days stock now. Why is that
from the day marketers said that they are not
importing again, we have been in trouble? That is
the reason I keep talking about process. This is
because when you don’t do things right, this is
the result you get.
“I will not say yes or no to subsidy removal, but
everything must be driven by principle and
process. If the principle and process are
transparently carried out and effectively
communicated to those that are affected, there
will be good result and acceptance. If we say we
are going to remove subsidy, there are
fundamental challenges that will arise that must
be addressed. If we say we will continue with
subsidy, we must devise means of raising money
because subsidy budget for this year is almost
exhausted and the year has not gone half. This is
why the incoming administration must put on its
thinking cap.”