Expert expresses reservations on GE’s investment in 3 refineries, seeks FG’s clarification
Considering the hot chase earlier given to the federal government by Nigerians’ on plan to sell off some national assets few months ago including refineries, leading Energy consultant, Dr. Demola Olagunju has fingered the trending celebration of the investment of General Electric (GE) in the repairs of three refineries as a veiled concession after all.
Business Hilights recalls that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had late last year hinted that government will soon begin the comprehensive repairs of refineries but with private sector involvement.
Analysts say there is no way an investor will ‘help’ government just to repair failed systems and walk away without anything attached.
According to Olagunju, “We want the federal government to tell Nigerians the terms under which both GE and ENI are relying on to play a key role in reviving the nation’s refineries”.
“Nigerians need to know what discussions and the terms and conditions signed before the investors begin to put down their money to avoid either a veiled sale without due consultations or a repair that will surreptitiously amount to mortgaging the national assets for unknown number of years.
“To me, the entire scenario is getting confused. We were told that ENI is investing in Port Harcourt refinery and just lately, GE is also investing in same facility and two others. What is really happeneing?
Recently, the government informed Nigerians that Italian giant, ENI has sealed a deal to repair Port Harcourt refinery in Rome and the same government has also said again that it hopes to boost local refining of petroleum products as General Electric (GE), a United States-based multinational company has proposed to invest and revamp the three ailing refineries including Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.
Details available to Business Hilights showed that GE, in a presentation to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, and the management of the corporation stated that the company’s teams of partners, including its consortium involving engineering, procurement and Construction (EPC) partners, off-takers, traders and some financiers would be engaged in the initiative.
GE, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, is worth $493 billion in asset and its business focus areas include oil and gas, power, water supply, aviation, healthcare, transportation and capital raising.
GE disclosed that “We were involved in the tenders that started around last year, which was subsequently withdrawn, but our commitment to bringing the refineries on-stream is still very deep and we are very serious about it. We propose that work commences either with the Warri or Port Harcourt Refinery as a pilot, as we set a target to improve the refinery capacity before the end of 2017,’’ the company stated in its presentation”.
Jeff Immelt, GE Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said as part of the offering, GE and NNPC have identified some major national power projects in the country and are currently developing the scope of intervention in the projects, which have a potential combined capacity of about 4.4 gigawatts.
The company further pledged its readiness to work with the NNPC to make production in the off-shore fields profitable for the benefit of both companies and other stakeholders, expressing the hope to consolidate on its existing working relationship with the government company.
