FG to begin sale of four oil refineries in 2014
Buoyed by the success of the recently concluded electric power generation and distribution companies, the Federal Government hopes to begin privatising its four oil refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt next year.
The process is to begin before end of March, Bloomberg reported Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke as saying on Monday.
She told Bloomberg TV Africa in London in an interview: “We would like to see major infrastructural entities such as refineries moving out of government hands into the private sector. Government do not want to be in the business of running major infrastructure entities and we haven’t done a very good job at it over all these years.”
A presidential audit of the facilities last year recommended sale of the refineries due to inadequate government funding and “sub-optimal performance.”
The refineries, which have a combined 445,000 barrel-a-day capacity, should be privatized within 18 months, according to the report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2012.
Nigeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, produced 1.99 million barrels per day of crude in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
