08 April 2014, Lagos – The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has advised private investors to concentrate on establishing their own refineries instead of focusing on buying the state-owned refineries.
Reacting to a comment credited to the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, PENGASSAN argued that NECA members should build their own refineries instead of struggling to buy the existing ones.
Speaking in Lagos, the President, PENGASSAN, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, stated that the body was not completely against privatisation but would only support it when due process and due diligence were done on the national assets.
He argued that selling the refineries at their present state would amount to throwing them away to the buyers at give-away prices, adding that no nation could grow while selling its national assets.
Ogun said, “Why are NECA members afraid of competition? Why can’t they go and build their own refineries if they are interested in the downstream sector of the nation’s oil and gas industry? Why are they bent on buying existing refineries knowing full well that these refineries are national assets and that they will do little or nothing to make them work?
“We are not totally against privatisation but we are prepared to back the government using the Strategic Partnering Model, where core investors shall take the 51 per cent golden stake, while sector unions and workers shall join state governments and others to buy into the remaining 49 per cent.”
