10 December 2014, Lagos – The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has expressed concern over the output from the refineries which has dropped to an average of 16 percent of their combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.
President of the union, Comrade Igwe Achese, who described the situation as unfortunate and uncomfortable for the downstream oil and gas sector of the economy, regretted that the four refineries operated at 10 percent installed capacity in June, this year.
He said in Lagos at the weekend that the development is a shame, given the abundance of crude oil deposits in the land, adding that in this era of government imposed austerity measures, the run on the foreign exchange to import fuel will tell much on the economy, thus fueling more hardship on poor Nigerians.
According to him, “a cabal is benefitting from importation of fuel at the expense of our people and also working in unison to make the four nation’s refineries not to work but to lobby the powers that be for it to be sold to them as scraps.”
He suggested that the federal government must ensure the turn-around-maintenance of the four refineries and make sure that adequate supply of crude is sent in order to reduce the importation of petroleum products.
– Daily Trust