The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has said it has no plan to build three off-shore oil refineries in Indonesia as reported by Jakarta Post and reproduced by several local news outlets in
Nigeria.
NNPC spokesperson, Levi Ajunoma, issued a rebuttal on behalf of the government and the county’s oil cartel on Thursday, saying that there is no truth to the report claiming that the country would partner with Indonesia to build three refining facilities estimated at $26 billion.
On Wednesday, the respected Indonesian newspaper, Jakarta Post, had quoted the director of the Indonesian Ministry of Industry, Panggah Susanto, as saying that both countries had reached an agreement for the state oil firm, PT Pertamina, to buy crude oil from Nigeria and process it at the planned refineries.
The paper quoted Susanto as saying, “They (Nigeria) wanted the refineries to be built in Nigeria. However, as Indonesia is currently improving its downstream industry, Indonesia wanted the refineries to be built here instead.” Susanto had told the Indonesian newspaper that Nigeria eventually agreed to build the refineries in the Asian country.
However, government denied the plan via a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Livi Ajunoma, in the name of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
“The Federal Government does not have any hand in this fictitious project. We want to totally and unequivocally disassociate the Government from this and we don’t know where this report emanated from. The Federal Government is focused on its transformation agenda and committed to delivering on the three Greenfield Refineries on schedule,” Ajuonuma said.
Before the denial, the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and other Nigerians had denounced the alleged plan and urged the National Assembly to investigate the investments.
Experts say a plan by the government to build refineries in other countries will face heavy opposition at home because of the country’s high unemployment rate and the poor state of her four refineries. The state of the refineries created a situation where government and independent marketers have had to import refined fuel to meet local demands.
The President General of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele, described the alleged deal as a ‘disgrace.’
Esele stated, “This is unacceptable and a big disgrace to this county. That money is enough to build a refinery in Nigeria. We are now also exporting jobs and creating jobs for Indonesian people, while a lot of Nigerian youths are unemployed.”
The Vice-President of the NLC, Mr. Isa Aremu, who also criticised the alleged investment, urged the National Assembly to investigate the matter, which he described as “a scandalous foreign investment amidst the collapse of refineries at home.”
He said, “It is simply unacceptable that we take investment to Indonesia, while we are begging for investment. Nigeria cannot be part of 20 industrialised countries when we do not develop ourselves, but develop others.”
An economist, Basil Enwegbera, said the country was better positioned to refine its own crude. He said, “These refineries, if built here, will make petroleum products cheaper as a result of closeness to crude source as well as to market. It would have created jobs here; technology transfer and source of attraction to other industrial and contract businesses such as petrochemicals.
“This is besides being a source of electricity and its byproducts being important, too, to our construction industry.”
On the Internet, Nigerians in the country and in the Diaspora also took umbrage with the plan.
Commenting on the article on the Jakarta Post website, a reader who wrote as Elixir Socnet, said, “This is just a typical lack of will and understanding of our government, so foolish as to chase shadow even in Indonesia. What a pity! Our refineries are not functioning and yet he went to another country to agree on building refineries there. Anyway, I am not disappointed. I knew this government was opportunistic.”
Another reader, Valentine, who gave his location as Lagos, wrote, “I don’t understand Goodluck Jonathan’s government. Why can’t nothing work in this government? Can’t the refineries be built here in Nigeria? Should our money got (sic) to a foreign country when the masses are suffering?”
On Facebook, public intellectual, Sabide Abidde, wrote, “You haven’t invested in your own country, but you are investing billions in another economy. How foolish?”
Recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation inked an oil and gas deal with China’s State Construction Engineering Corporation. The deal is for the construction of three Greenfield refineries and a petrochemical plant in Nigeria.
Under the terms of the agreement, 80 per cent of the project cost is to be funded with a term loan provided by China Export Credit Insurance Corporation and a consortium of Chinese banks, led by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Alison-Madueke had revealed that the comprehensive feasibility study on the installations would be ready very soon.
Curiously, the country did not announce if it would protest to the Indonesian government its disapproval of the embarrassing report. And for a nation that previously arrested and tried to intimidate its own news reporters earlier in the week for reporting the duplicity of some of its leaders, the government has not explained to its citizens if the Post’s claim will be investigated to know the alleged official who spilled out the shrouded deed.
Additional reports from The Punch (Nigeria)