FG Opens Up on Sale of Port Harcourt Refinery to Dangote, Otedola

• The Nigerian government has disclosed the reason for the failure of the government to sell the Port Harcourt Refineries to Dangote and Otedola
• The special adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, said the NLC and TUC blocked the sale of the refinery to two billionaires
• The government of Umar Yar’Adua reversed the sale of the Port Harcourt refinery to the Bluestar Consortium owned by Dangote and Otedola in 2007

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

The Nigerian government, on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, blamed the current state of Nigeria’s refineries, including the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, on labour opposition to selling them to Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola.

The special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this as he reacted to trade union claims of human rights abuses against the government over the arrest of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero.

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How labour blocked sale of Nigerian refineries 

Joe Ajaero could not attend the meeting organised by the Trade Union Congress in the UK, which began on Tuesday, due to his arrest.

BusinessDay reports that Onanuga accused the labour unions in Nigeria of pursuing narrow interests that had stalled economic growth and development and compromised the well-being of the workers and the poor.

He cited the strong opposition of the NLC and the TUC to the sale of Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries to Bluetar Consortium, owned by Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola, in 2007, during the government of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Onanuga disclosed that 17 years after the labour movement blocked the government of Umar Yar'Adua's consummation of the sale of the refineries, none of Nigeria’s four refineries have functioned.

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Onanuga said:

“In the obverse, Mr. Aliko Dangote, one of the promoters of Bluestar, has built the largest single-train refinery in the world. In a twist of fate, the same Labour Movement that fiercely opposed Dangote from taking over the two refineries in 2007 hailed him on completing his 650,000-bpd refinery in Lagos.” 

The refineries have remained disrepair and have gulped about $25 billion in maintenance costs.

NNPC refuses to off-take Dangote petrol

The development comes as talks between the Dangote refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) have allegedly stalled, leading the Dangote Refinery to consider exporting its petrol.

The NNPC had said that it would not be the sole distributor of the Dangote Refinery despite fixing September 15, 2024, as the date to commence product lifting from the 650,000bpd-capacity refinery.

The national oil firm said the Dangote Refinery is free to sell to any marketer on a willing buyer, willing seller basis.

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The statement has led to oil marketers seeking an alternative to Dangote petrol if NNPC does not sell the product to them.

Oil marketers seek an alternative to Dangote petrol

Legit.ng previously reported that oil marketers might ditch the $20 billion Dangote Refinery and start importing petrol, following the recent statement by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) that it would only offtake the product from the refinery if the market prices of the newly launched commodity were higher than the pump prices in Nigeria.

The national oil firm also stated that Nigeria's world’s single-train refinery and other facilities were free to sell directly to any marketer on a willing buyer, willing seller basis.

The NNPC said it had no plans to become the distributor for any entity in a free market.

Proofread by Kola Muhammed, journalist and copyeditor at Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng