Minister of State for petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday, stated that until the downstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry is liberalized and subsidy of petroleum products removed, the country would continue to struggle and face challenges in terms of ensuring stable fuel supply.

This came as President Muhammadu Buhari said that the oil and gas sector was strategic to the growth and development of the country, and would continue to remain relevant for a long time to come.

Speaking in Abuja, at the presentation of the key achievements of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in three years, 2016 to 2018 and award to staff of the ministry, Kachikwu, argued that to address fuel supply challenges, the country needed to find a way to satisfy the need to provide products sufficiently for the populace and at the same time to be able to free the sector for growth.

He said, “In the midstream and downstream sectors, we have struggled. I would love to see a day when there would be no fuel scarcity in this country. But for that to happen, there are certain realities. The liberalization of the sector is going to be a panacea to being able to solve this. As long as we continue to subsidise products, create market-unfriendly type practices, we would continue to struggle.

“We are not going to trade our way out of the fuel crisis by bringing sufficiency, by expanding reserves, by extravagant costs which cost the country a lot of money; that is not the solution. The solution is to get our refineries working.”

Kachikwu noted that investments are lacking in the petroleum sector, adding that over the years, refineries’ turn around maintenance, TAM, had been fraught with faulty models which had hampered the effectiveness of the refineries.

Focus on refineries’ revamp, not my resignation

He also lamented calls for his resignation over his statements on the refineries, stating that emphasis should instead be on making the refineries work and on milestones achieved by the present administration in the area of refineries’ revamp.

He said, “If my leaving office brings products to the Nigerian populace, then that is it. But that is not the issue. The issue is that until you fund and build the refineries, until you find the investors and they work, you are not going to solve the problem. I am mindful of that, I am working very hard with the NNPC on that; NNPC is driving that process; I am the policy driver, they are the mechanics of that process.”

SOURCE: http://www.nigerianeye.com/2018/12/oil-sector-would-remain-relevant-for.html

Absolutely correct