Stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector have blamed the inability of the nation to refine its crude oil on lack of best practices.
The Founder, Azikel Group, a conglomerate with investment interests in dredging and crude oil refinery, Dr. Azibapu Godbless, explained that there should not be any reason for the nation to export refined oil from India, Brazil, and
Europe.
He said, “We sell our crude oil to Brazil, India and China, they refine it and sell it back to us. There is no reason we should fail. We have noticed that government businesses are really not done with the best private sector-driven rules and that is why the refineries operate in a civil service pattern.
According to him, it is time for the nation to abandon the conventional method of refining crude but subscribe to the Outside Battery Limit and neglect the Inside Battery Limit, which is time-wasting and creates needless labour, that the nation might not have enough resources to meet future
challenges.
He added, “Instead of the ISBL that takes about five years to build, as it requires flying all the experts from all over the world for servicing, the OSBL costs less to build, due to its quick operations. We can easily build the process unit outside of this country, which is a lot
much easy.”
The former Managing Director, Eterna Oil Plc, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi, also blamed the failure of the refineries on corruption and lack of right policies in place, especially before 2015.
He said, “If we expect a better structured and transformed Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation that will be accountable and profit-driven, there will be nothing wrong with the corporation’s continued ownership of the running of the refineries.
“In the past, they failed to function because of the corruption and lack of accountability that pervaded the system. NNPC has the best trained, experienced and competent staff in the industry.
Given proper leadership and strict operating guidelines, subject to appropriate rewards and sanction schemes, the corporation will perform to global
standards.”
