Sylvester Idowu in Warri
An expert in Oil and Gas and Chairman of DAS Energy Services in Delta State, Mr Sunny Onuesoke has thrown his weight behind the call by Nigeria Senate on the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to privatize the four refineries and other moribund assets in the country as part of efforts to finance its budget deficit of N6.3tn.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had recently said that his regime would finance the N6.26tn deficit contained in the 2022 budget with N5tn which his regime proposed to borrow from local and foreign sources.
Speaking with journalists in Asaba International Airport, Asaba, Delta State, Onuesoke advised President Muhammadu Buhari to listen to the advise of the Senate and experts on the need for internal revenue generation to reduce its spate of borrowing and high deficit financing.
Onuesoke, who expressed worries that the N6.3tn budget deficit is just too large, explained that the only way for Nigeria to regain its economic glory is to avoid economic wastage by privatizing the four moribund refineries and other national assets that have become liabilities than assets to the nation.
He recalled that despite guzzling billions in running costs for many years, the four refineries being run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)remain in a sorry state, stressing that claims of turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation funded by taxpayers’ money have not helped, rather, the fortunes of the refineries have consistently worsened.
Onuesoke, also a former governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, traced the rot in the refineries to the incompetence of government in managing the refineries disclosing that a study carried out by the National Refineries Special Task Force (NRSTF) of 42 oil refineries operating in Africa in 2012, revealed that the four refineries in Nigeria recorded the worst performance in both efficiency and utilization capacity with an average capacity utilization of only 18 percent compared to 81 percent and 85 percent respectively for Egypt and South Africa in the period of 2006-2009.
“It is embarrassing that Nigeria being rated as one of the biggest oil producing countries in Africa still imports petroleum products from countries like Brazil and India, which were no where on the oil map of the world when Nigeria discovered oil in Oloibiri in 1956. Absurdly, Nigeria has also been importing petroleum products from Niger, a neighbouring West African country which has a modest refining capacity of 20,000 bpd,” he disclosed.
