Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, speaks with journalists on a wide range of issues, including challenges he faced while in office. OLUSOLA FABIYI, who was part of the team, reports

Do you think you have set the industry along the right path and is there anything else to be done to take it to what President Muhammadu Buhari called the ‘next level’?

You are absolutely right and that is why if you listened to the video, you would realise that it was talking about continuity and being able to sustain what was ongoing. I think one of the things we have done is to ‘socialise’ the policies. We went to the Federal Executive Council, we passed the Petroleum Industry Bill, we passed the gas policy, and we have submitted the final copies of the fiscal policy. That wasn’t taken unfortunately. The things that we have done around gas specialisation came out from there; the refinery project that we want to kick off came out from there. Infrastructure project and Niger Delta militancy also came out from there. We worked very closely with the National Assembly on the passage of the bills so I strongly believe that the policies are fantastic but the biggest thing is to make them laws. Unfortunately the very first one, which is the mother of legislation, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, was not signed by the President because of few amendments, some of which we supported but that is being done by the National Assembly and should probably be ready now.

You were unable to give Nigerians refineries as promised as well?

You are right. It is one area where I think we did not deliver the mandate and I am bold enough to say that. Recently, I think I saw something like ‘Kachikwu failed to deliver on his five promises on refineries’. I think it is a misunderstanding of how the system works. I started within as Group Managing Director and also as Minister of State at that point; most of the powers and work were centered on me. If you look at the refineries, the first problem we had was that they were not functioning when I assumed office in 2015 and because of the huge apparent fuel scarcity; it was a major problem for me if I had to wait for vessels to arrive each time to meet the delivery timeline. These were the problems. So I was focused on how to get them working, at least to start, no matter how little and all they gave me was one million litres a day.

The pipelines that were supplying fuel had all been destroyed and they had entered into a contract before we came in, to supply product by vessels. The cost of those vessels supplied was more than the value of the crude oil that was being supplied. It did not make any financial sense. So I cancelled that and challenged Nigerians who were in this entity to go and use their money to repair the pipelines.

https://punchng.com/i-admit-that-we-failed-to-give-nigerians-refinery-kachikwu/amp/

Bobrisky was even more reliable last 4yrs than buhari and his apc government...he cut off his preeq,added bumbum,bleached and grew breast...still buy benz...c'mon refinery,school feeding,power supply,health care etc..una no fit.

Sai Buhari

Useless outgoing minister of state for petroleum, useless nominee from Exxon Mobil ...nonsense first class that can n ot deliver

Useless APC politician..that put us into hardship N145/per litre/pms.

Buhari present a Third Class home grown graduate for this job and see

Foolish talk,of course it shows u are part of the scam in the System, for four yrs u couldn't build or refurbished a single refinery? Shame on you and NNPC

Promise and fail Govt

Government of propaganda

Ok please resign like you promised big mouth.

Because NNPC cannot, under fuel subsidy , make the profit that is needed to build a refinery...without taking extra loans.

Modified

Since I wrote this comment, I have recieved a lot of responses , including some abuse.

I brief....we are selling fuel at N145. Actual cost is N200 to import it. And we import over 60% of the fuel we consume here. And the government is forcing NNPC to sell fuel at N145 to marketers

The problem is, with such price controls,no one wants to come and invest in the petrol sector. If there were no price controls...if marketers were allowed to sell fuel at the price they want...we would have had investors coming in to make their profit by investing in things like relfieries, and so on...and this brings down prices eventually.

We were here before , with the GSM industry. Because Obasanjo refused to subsidise GSM....GSM companies made their profits and invested in a lot of facilites with the aim of growing their business. And competition did its thing and brought prices down.(All the GSM antenna, and cables were put there by the GSM companies...government did not spend a kobo).

And to anyone thinking Dangote will save us...Dangote is not going to refine fuel at N150 and above and sell it at N145 PER liter. He would lose money. So, he is either going to export, or subsidy goes.

That's why I think subsidy should go. Yes, we would pay N250 and above for fuel. But in Niger, Cameroon and Benin, they pay over N280 per liter of fuel...and Benin, Cameroon , even Niger are oil producers. But investment, and competiton would bring prices down, and jobs would be created.

Cheap fuel is cursing our economy. Time we faced reality. Because all this subsidy is being used to feed corrupt subsidy scammers in government and society. If you like, abuse and curse me. Reality is harsh. We cannot run bsinesses in this country as welfare organisations.

Bleep this man with this his stupid story.

Don't worry your nairaland jobless zombies will defend you

What do we expect from PMB who is the Minister of Petroleum and knows nothing about the sector. He hasn't finished handling security and the economy. Refinery is probably the last thing on his mind. The real petroleum minister in this country will be Dangote once his refinery comes online

Thought He Was Gonna Blame GEJ

Cluess Government

Max8:
Foolish talk,of course it shows u are part of the scam in the System, for four yrs u couldn't build or refurbished a single refinery? Shame on you and NNPC

refinery that have not refined a drop of crude oil since July 2018...

Propaganda doesn't build refinery na

But you fail to resign. That is what you promise you'll do if you fail to stop importation of fuel by 2019

What do we expect of a secondary school dropout who happen to be the minister of petroleum?

You failed

Theresa May is resigning not because she didn't perform in governance but because she didn't fulfil her major campaign promise which is -agree an acceptable Brexit deal with EU. In Nigeria,a govt official won't perform any electioneering promises but will still boast about that with boldness.

Hahahahaha.... Like dis is news ... It is d utterly useless and shameless zonBs dat shld hide their faces in shame... I expect dem to come out with their misdirected criticisms and insults forgetting d Minister of Petroleum is d President

A failed man, he said ph refinary will soon start he said it more than four times, look at were we are now, incompetent government. alright

You Nigerians deserve the poo this people throw at you. When you all are tired of being trampled upon like fools, you know how to force these demonic politicians out of power

Them suppose slap this useless brain dead idiot and his cow master

I keep wondering how sane and educated nigerians still vote for this useless government for 2nd term in office after a failed 1st term.

Adebayo33:
TODAY FIXED GAMES IS READY, SEE BELOW

Yawn
The road to the highest income generating agency in Nigeria, the NPA is in shambles , should be blame subsidy?

tactius:
Because NNPC cannot, under fuel subsidy , make the profit that is needed to build a refinery...without taking extra loans.

U and fahsola na the same

This is another Igbo failure foolish cursed PDP Igbos n Ipob will not wail about. Imagine if this was Tinubu or Sanwo come we their fathers wail.

tactius:
Because NNPC cannot, under fuel subsidy , make the profit that is needed to build a refinery...without taking extra loans.

Didn't they no that b4 they promised 2 fix d refineries? Kachukwu also promised 2 resign? Y didn't he resign? Was it because of fuel subsidy?