Nigeria and other African countries will
continue to be net importers of petroleum products despite the
availability of functional and quasi-functional refineries, and plans to
build more refineries on the continent, the Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mr. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said.
According to her, plans to build more refineries in Angola, Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria cannot change the situation.
“Notwithstanding
the possibility of building new refineries in Africa, including new
projects in Angola (Sonaref refinery); Uganda (Uganda oil refinery);
Mozambique (Nacala refinery); and Nigeria, among others, Africa will
remain a net importer of petroleum products for at least 20 years to
come,” she said.
The minister,
however, pointed out that Nigeria was already on the path to adding more
capacity by 2020 through the proposed private refineries by the Dangote
Group and Orient, and Bayelsa, Kogi, and Lagos states, among others.
Alison-Madueke,
who was represented by the Deputy Director, Gas, Department of
Petroleum Resources, Mr. Oliver Okparaojiakor, said sub-Saharan Africa
was the least sophisticated refining centre in the world.
She
said, “In fact, there are only 24fuels refineries within the region,
with a total refining capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day for a
population that is close to a billion. Population growth means more
energy consumption.
“However, the
uncompetitive and inefficient nature of many of these refineries,
combined with the difficulty in funding major upgrades, or new capacity,
seem likely to keep the average utilisation at a low level in the short
term.
“The implication of population
growth for Africa is that demand for petroleum products will continue to
be on the rise without commensurate refining capacity addition. There
is an urgent need to encourage investors to partner with national oil
companies or privately to build more refineries, and for us to be less
dependent on imports.”
On petroleum
products subsidies, the minister said the stunted growth of the
downstream sector was attributable to the distortion introduced to the
market as a direct result of the regulated regime in some sub-Saharan
African countries, adding, “There is a need to eliminate this convoluted
price subsidy and stimulate competition across the value chain.”
The
issue of subsidy, she explained, could not be over flogged, as
according to the World Bank, subsidy on petroleum products in Nigeria
and other oil-producing African countries would be unsustainable in the
medium term.
Alison-Madueke said heavy
subsidy was an unsustainable expenditure even on the long term, as it
generally promoted energy inefficiency and imprudent consumption.
Over
the last 10 years, she said Nigeria had taken important steps towards a
more deregulated downstream, adding that to provide a competitive
market environment and sustain supply, the downstream sector should be
fully deregulated.
Similarly, the
Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mr.
Farouk Ahmed, said activities in the downstream sector had facilitated a
net inflow of investment in excess of N60bn.
The
Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Mr. Dakoko
Peterside, who represented the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, stated, “We are working on the Petroleum Industry
Bill and we are conscious of the fact that it is very critical to the
economy of Nigeria; and so, we are not taking it lightly. I want to
reassure you again that we are taking the PIB very seriously and I’m
very optimistic that the bill will be passed before 2015.”
0 blogger-facebook:
Post a Comment