By Clara Nwachukwu
DESPITE the alarm raised by oil workers on the impeding privatisation of the refineries, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and the National Gas Company (NGC), all subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), stakeholders have said such a plan is not feasible at the moment.

According to some of them who spoke with Vanguard in confidence, said “there are currently too many vested interests in the oil and gas industry for any privatisation to work in the sector,” adding that government was already too preoccupied with the upcoming elections to pull it through.
Besides, they noted, previous attempts to privatise the refineries had hit the rocks on account of these vested interests, saying, “The issue of concessioning or the unbundling of the NNPC has been in the pipeline for over a year now, but nothing concrete has come out of it.”
NNPC’s denial

The NNPC in a recent statement denied reports being circulated by industry unions that the Federal Government is planning to privatise the nation’s refineries, the PPMC and the NGC.

The statement signed by the NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, stated that there is no such plan to privatise any of the Corporation’s subsidiaries and appealed to the unions to remain calm.
“I wish to categorically state that there is no clandestine move whatsoever to privatise the nation’s refineries, the PPMC or the NGC; rather efforts are in top gear by the Federal government to ensure the speedy reform of the industry,” he said.

But describing the unions’ alarm as diversionary, the stakeholders noted that there was no way any investor, would put down money to buy any of these facilities not just because they are in bad shape, but also in view of the ongoing reforms of industry, being championed in the Petroleum Industry Bill.

In reference to the reforms, Dr. Ajuonuma insisted that the Federal Government and the corporation are working towards the quick passage of the Petroleum Bill, currently undergoing legislative scrutiny  at the National Assembly.
Unbundling the NNPC

The stakeholders however, agreed that the unbundling of the NNPC has some economic benefits in terms of cutting costs, the corporation being more profitable and commercially viable, but noted that “those who are benefitting fro the rot in the system will not allow the programme to work.”

They also argued that giving the antecedent of previously privatised federal government’s establishments such as NITEL, privatising the refineries for instance, will not be easy. According to the, “When NITEL was sold, because of the way it was handled, it was put back on the privatisation stable and even up till now after any attempts, they have still not got it right. And when you consider it, the NNPC is even more fragile than NITEL, because the oil and gas industry is the backbone of Nigeria’s economy.”