Equally, what appeared to be a major change in policy, the Federal Government, yesterday, said it has no plans to sell any of the country’s refineries. Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, who spoke on the issue, also said that if selling the refineries was the basis for the plan by the junior oil workers to embark on strike, then the action would be fruitless. Full story after the break
On Pump Price Increase
Dispelling fears of pump price hike, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, said in a statement that all its offices nationwide had stepped up surveillance and monitoring of all products retail outlets to ensure and enforce compliance, stressing that all defaulters will be sanctioned in accordance with the law.
It said: “The DPR wishes to inform the general public that the Federal Government of Nigeria has not and does not intend to increase petroleum product prices contrary to speculations by some members of the public.
“Consequently, all petroleum product marketers are hereby advised to sell at government approved prices and desist from hoarding, thereby causing artificial scarcity and hardship to consumers.
“The DPR wishes to reiterate that there is adequate supply of petroleum products nationwide.
“Meanwhile, all DPR offices nationwide have stepped up surveillance and monitoring of all products retail outlets to ensure and enforce compliance. All defaulters will be sanctioned in accordance with the law.”
Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, appealed to oil marketers to refrain from hoarding of petroleum products, and the general public from panic buying in anticipation of any increase in pump price.
On Selling Refineries
This would be the second time government would reverse its decision to sell the four national refineries with combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, even as combined refining capacity is now below 30 per cent. The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government reversed the sale of two of the refineries to some Nigerian billionaires by his predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
However, Abati’s position contrasted sharply with that of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Deziani Alison-Madueke, who said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa in London that the refineries would be sold.
“We would like to see major infrastructure entities, such as refineries, moving out of government hands into the private sector. Government does not want to be in the business of running major infrastructure entities and we haven’t done a very good job at it over the years,” she said.
But according to Abati: “Government is not going to sell any refineries. There is no such plan, and there is no presidential approval for such. Nobody, not even the Minister of Petroleum has powers to sell any government’s property.”
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