THE ENERGY MISUNDERSTOOD: TINUBU, DANGOTE REFINERY 2025, LEGALIZATION OF ILLEGAL REFINERY, HUNGER AND IMMINENT CIVIL REVOLUTION CUM INDUSTRIAL STRIKE. PLUS CNG.

PART 1

[s]The energy misunderstood: tinubu, dangote refinery 2025, legalization of illegal refinery[/s]

The honey moon is over for the commander in chief , President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his policy master strokes has plunged the entire country into desolation and moribund crises of massive proportion. As a stakeholder of this country, silence has unfolded to become a crime and never golden again.
This is why I took my pen to assist the government of the day to have arrays of ideas to work with, if there indigenous work plan is failing and adding to our woes collectively. Its designed to be a ten in a series papers to poker the nose of the technocrats in government that whenever there is crises of ideas or ideas blockage , sources like this can fill the lacuna by providing them with raw alternatives. Consultancy fees not attached. One wonders surfeit of ideas that were sold to the FG in the past with extortionate burdens what is the outcome ( kini abo-jade)

This part I will focus on the legalization of illegal refineries strewn across the country specifically the Niger Delta region. Wisdom and argument have been postulated on demerit of illegal refinery and one consensus opinion hinges on attendant pollution that arises from such ventures and the strength of this paper is to handle and proffer answer to it. Ideologues across the economic circle believes one way of reducing poverty is creating …..


The solution to our problems over many decades that has eluded us is however in the crevices of our palms and pocket trouser and one sane thinker wonder how and where we missed it all this while. Modern enterprise, today, enriched themselves on the plethora of ideas and technology that they created and they protect it as a brand and financial securities for sole purpose of monetization, income generation , wealth addition and job creation for the benefit of their people. It should be abundantly clear to us that no Nations of the world is going to assist us in restoration of our refineries. It is to their eternal achievements that we remained backward (our loss is their gain, as simple as ABC) in our energy sufficiency particularly in PMS and its derivatives production and depend solely on them, meanwhile ours economy is solely driven by two hydra devils namely PMS and dollar. This two are capable to either send the people to guillotine if not properly managed or create abundance and prosperity for all if the reverse approach is taken. It’s a carbuncle that this basics is not well understood by the people and above all the economic adviser to the Govt of the day at any particular point in our history. The elites , who are suppose to be the drivers , torchlight and catalyst, have commited a massive economic crime against the people in the context of the Nigerian state. Why did we drop the ball. Its preposterous that the state funded refinery is moribund and distasteful to the reasonable minds that the engineers and other ancillary workers working there are still collecting bogus salary. What a gross inefficiency! Whereas, rag tag army of unemployed youth can be so organized under the banner of status called[b] "illegallity"[/b] to refine petrol for people consumption. Wise people will have embrace this technology and create a massive industry around these little piece by providing platforms, operational frame work and set up indigenous seed of industrialization from here.

Timeline:
= 1965, Nigeria developed and launched her first refinery in port harcourt with a capacity to refine 60,000 barrels per day, in same port harcourt anothrt one was built to refine 150,000 barrel in 1989. Alltogeter portharcourt refineries have the capacities of combined 200,000 barrels per day.
= the other two refineries are located in warri and kaduna respectively

Summary:

>> The leader of this country should do quick to avert civil revolution reason being that their are huge hunger in the land and business are dieing

>> now that subsidy is gone, why is Govt is very slow in providing sustainable alternative

>> CNG is the way to go. Govt should embark on this now to provide succour to the populace

>> while waiting for the rapid deployment of CNG , the Govt should convert illegal refinery to legal one

The inevitable revolution or Military Intervention that is loading would reset the CORRUPTION deaded brain cells of the RUBBER STAMP LEGISLATURE, fearful and favored determined judiciary and rascal executive

BREAKING AND URGENT ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


the president of the republic of nigeria has announced to engaged the state in a national broadcast at 7PM today. this is a welcome development by the way.

And we do hope mr president will deliver far reaching reforms to the excruciating pains we are all currently observing now like hunger, pains, economic and financial dislocation and not limited to impending strike anticipated by the leadership of the NLC.


Things I personally want Mr president to touch are listed below:

>> CNG activation across the country within two weeks

>> provision of food stamps across major cities and allowing philanthropic organization to participate

>> immediate policy guidelines to encourage local refinery such as LEGALIZATION of illegal refineries

>> suspension of all major anti people policies for now

God bless a listening president and the FRN.

PART 2


21st August 2023


Credited Punching.com

Credited Tella Sheriffdeen


On legalising illegal oil refineries
21st August 2023


Sheriffdeen Tella
Sheriffdeen Tella

By
Sheriffdeen Tella
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It is not uncommon to read reports of the destruction of illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region. The appellation ‘illegal’ could have arisen from the fact that the crude oil being refined was stolen from the oil rigs or reserves; or probably because the refineries did not go through official company registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission. It could also be because the refineries are too small and the production processes are quite crude to bring out pure, refined fuel that would not be catastrophic to the operations of vehicles.

There may be many more reasons to justify the term illegality. However, my interest is not the illegality of these businesses but that they are referred to as ‘refineries.’ They produce crudely refined petroleum from crude oil. They do so and are able to sell the output because the existing refineries cannot meet domestic demand, having been producing below the required capacity over the years. The discrepancy gives room for the importation of refined oil in an oil-producing country! The sub-optimal operations of the legal refineries gave birth to payment of illegal subsidy that grew at a rate over and above the crude being legally exported.

In April 2022, I wrote that just because Shell moved out or stopped production we could not meet up with oil production as required and just because Dunlop stopped producing tires, we have to depend on importation of the products. After over 50 years of oil production, we cannot take over or indigenise oil production to fill the gap created! We cannot refine our oil and take advantage of all the by-products attached to the crude oil. Those who use crude methods to get what they need from the crude oil are tagged as illegal refiners! Instead of helping them to standardise and modernise we pursue them to the bush, just because the corrupt officials will not get anything out of such operations.

It took the late irrepressible Tai Solarin lots of efforts over some years to get our locally prepared ogogoro (akin to imported dry gin) to be officially and legally recognised. Many people were arrested and prosecuted for producing the so-called illicit gin. The ogogoro was derided and demonised for being produced by ‘illiterates.’ Tai was relentless in fighting for the recognition of the product until it was eventually approved and allowed to be sold publicly. Today, some Nigerians export the same ogogoro abroad, earning foreign exchange in the process. That was possible because studies were carried out openly on how to improve the quality in terms of production and marketing. The tag of illegality would not have made this possible and Nigeria is better for those singular actions today.



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The illegal refineries have been subjected to destruction many times and for many years. Yet, they continue to spring up because that is the source of living for the owners and there is a demand for their products. They are better than those who lift crude oil illegally for sale outside the country causing great losses and pains to the Nigerian economy. They are even better than the Nigerian government who sell crude oil, make money and steal the fund for personal and family use at the expense of the citizens and the economy generally. Their activities may be illegal but they also want to live and need help. If the government had helped them, it would have also helped the country. Let us digress.

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Chief Obafemi Awolowo remembered the existence of money lenders and the havoc they were inflicting on poor folks who had to borrow from that source, having himself been a victim. When he had the opportunity as the Premier of the Western Region, he did not tag their business as illegal financial services; he categorised them as financial operators in the informal sector and put in place an alternative source of finance for the poor citizens. He harvested some of the Yoruba traditional financing methods by encouraging cooperative societies where people would come together to contribute their small funds and lend to members in return. Eventually, his government created the Cooperative Bank where all the different cooperative societies could keep their funds and borrow individually or collectively at moderate interest rates. It was a reform that took the shine off money lenders and promoted banking habits for the benefit of the citizens and the region. It was one of the many legacies of the great man that turned the Western region into the commercial hub of Nigeria today.

What lesson can we learn from this? The government should legalise the so-called illegal refinery operators and get them registered as petroleum product cooperative producers. Their activities can be integrated into the curriculum of the petroleum institute to give them free training on how to improve on different stages of crude oil refining on a small scale. The recognition will immediately stop bunkering and the attendant environmental pollution in their areas of operation. At the initial stage and for the next two years, they can be supplied crude oil freely but they will pay tax on sales and income tax by their staff. They could be saddled with the task of preventing crude oil theft in their areas of operation as their contribution to the national reforms in that sector. More important is the fact that supply from their operations will be part of the domestic output that will reduce importation and the attendant capital outflow; more so, when the Dangote refinery supply has become unreliable.

In the article of April 2022, I asked a number of questions, including whether the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has accurate data on the daily production of crude oil. I also asked if the country had oil monitoring equipment controlled by Nigerians. Recent revelation has shown that we do have monitoring equipment but not in use or used discretely for the benefit of the oil thieves and their collaborators as against being used for the nation. Furthermore, I asked, “Do we have intelligence units of maritime and security manned by Nigerians?” I then suggested that the country needed to look at how to improve the conditions of those who engage in ‘illegal’ refinery through training, capital empowerment and refinement support rather than pushing them further into the sea and invariably causing deep sea oil spillage and environmental degradation. Once these crops of people are recognised and assisted, they become part of the unofficial security outfit in the protection of their source of living.

Since President Bola Tinubu has decided to follow in the footsteps of some of his predecessors by taking the portfolio of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, he needs to act differently. Those predecessors acted as absentee ministers, carrying the title without responsibility. A petroleum minister must be deeply interested in what is going on in the petroleum sector. Why are the refineries not working after so many turn-around payments? With available records earlier, the Warri refinery should be working by now but it’s not. And the President has assured Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery will add to the domestic supply by December 2023. Will it?

The President should be able to know and tell us how much crude oil is being sold in the international market by looking at international data at the end port, not the figure being branded locally here. The international figures at the port of entry into the international markets are more reliable and the data can tell us the amount of illegal shipment of crude, the amount of money we should expect from oil exports, and how close we are to meeting the OPEC allocations. The President should be able to visit the refineries aside from pressing a button on his computer to get appropriate information. Of course, the work of the petroleum minister is a big task and that is why a Minister of State is desirable and available. But the Minister of Petroleum must equally be active in the office and on the field. Fortunately, if fuel prices are rising, the way it has been in recent time, the President cannot claim ignorance. He will be held responsible. If domestic production of crude oil and refined petroleum isn’t meeting the required figures, the President/minister will be held responsible, not the Minister of State.

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