Lack of reliable regulatory framework killing investments in oil, gas sector—Atiku
…As idleness hits Kaduna refinery leading to loss of N18.7bn in 7 months
Presidential hopeful of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has given insights on the scanty volume of deep pocket investment in the nation’s oil and gas sector in the last couple of years.
This is as feelers from the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company show that the facility has failed to refine any crude oil from February to August this year, losing a total of N18.67bn.
It was gathered that the refinery lost N3.81bn in February, N2.63bn in March, N4.22bn in May, N2.98bn in June, N2.35bn in July, and N2.68bn in August, but made a profit of N2.96bn in April, the corporation said in its latest monthly report.
Business Hilights recalls that Nigeria has four refineries, two in Port Harcourt and one each in Kaduna and Warri, with an installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, but they have continued to operate far below the installed capacity for many years.
All four refineries lost a total of N68.12bn in the first half of this year, making a profit of N928.81m in April, for the first time in 10 months, according to the data from the NNPC.
Total crude processed by the refineries in August was 56,804 metric tonnes as against the 90,872MT processed in the preceding month, translating to a combined yield efficiency of 80.74 per cent as against the 73.82 per cent in July.
Speaking in an interview with ‘The African Report’, a monthly publication, the former chairman of National Council on Privatisation (NCP), he averred that the major drawback hobbling investors to do more in the sector is policy and regulatory inconsistency, saying “Without a stable regulatory framework, the oil and gas companies will find it difficult to invest more in Nigeria”.
“At the time, we pushed for the passage of the new law. We expected that Nigeria would be able to export up to four million barrels per day but here we are still at less than two million barrels per day.”
The presidential hopeful further hinted of reducing federal government’s stake in NNPC to 10 per cent as part of his planned restructuring scheme of the economy to open up the sector for massive investment and job creation.
While decrying the current low daily oil and gas production, Atiku made it clear that his administration will among other things, create the needed environment by way of developing a reliable regulatory framework that will encourage both local content and international investors.
He stressed that “The government should have a very minor shareholding. Nigeria is in dire need of funds to develop its infrastructure and other sectors of the economy.”
