The Federal Government on Thursday denied reports that Nigeria had plans to build three refineries in Indonesia at the cost of $2.68bn (428.8bn).


On Wednesday, a respected Indonesian newspaper, Jakarta Post, had quoted the director of the Indonesian Ministry of Industry, Panggah Susanto, as saying that both countries had reached an agreement for the state oil firm, PT Pertamina, to buy crude oil from Nigeria and process it at the planned refineries.


The paper quoted Susanto as saying, “They (Nigeria) wanted the refineries to be built in Nigeria. However, as Indonesia is currently improving its downstream industry, Indonesia wanted the refineries to be built here instead.” Susanto had told the Indonesian newspaper that Nigeria eventually agreed to build the refineries in the Asian country.


However, government denied the plan via a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Livi Ajunoma, in the name of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Diezani Alison-Madueke.


“The Federal Government does not have any hand in this fictitious project. We want to totally and unequivocally disassociate the Government from this and we don’t know where this report emanated from. The Federal Government is focused on its transformation agenda and committed to delivering on the three Greenfield Refineries on schedule,” Ajuonuma said.


Before the denial, the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and other Nigerians had denounced the alleged plan and urged the National Assembly to investigate the investments.


Experts say a plan by the government to build refineries in other countries will face heavy opposition at home because of the country’s high unemployment rate and the poor state of her four refineries. The state of the refineries created a situation where government and independent marketers have had to import refined fuel to meet local demands.


The President General of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele, described the alleged deal as a ‘disgrace.’


Esele stated, “This is unacceptable and a big disgrace to this county. That money is enough to build a refinery in Nigeria. We are now also exporting jobs and creating jobs for Indonesian people, while a lot of Nigerian youths are unemployed.”


The Vice-President of the NLC, Mr. Isa Aremu, who also criticised the alleged investment, urged the National Assembly to investigate the matter, which he described as “a scandalous foreign investment amidst the collapse of refineries at home.”


He said, “It is simply unacceptable that we take investment to Indonesia, while we are begging for investment. Nigeria cannot be part of 20 industrialised countries when we do not develop ourselves, but develop others.”


An economist, Basil Enwegbera, said the country was better positioned to refine its own crude. He said, “These refineries, if built here, will make petroleum products cheaper as a result of closeness to crude source as well as to market. It would have created jobs here; technology transfer and source of attraction to other industrial and contract businesses such as petrochemicals.


“This is besides being a source of electricity and its byproducts being important, too, to our construction industry.”


On the Internet, Nigerians in the country and in the Diaspora also took umbrage with the plan.


Commenting on the article on the Jakarta Post website, a reader who wrote as Elixir Socnet, said, “This is just a typical lack of will and understanding of our government, so foolish as to chase shadow even in Indonesia. What a pity! Our refineries are not functioning and yet he went to another country to agree on building refineries there. Anyway, I am not disappointed. I knew this government was opportunistic.”


Another reader, Valentine, who gave his location as Lagos, wrote, “I don’t understand Goodluck Jonathan’s government. Why can’t nothing work in this government? Can’t the refineries be built here in Nigeria? Should our money got to a foreign country when the masses are suffering?”


On Facebook, public intellectual, Sabide Abidde, wrote, “You haven’t invested in your own country, but you are investing billions in another economy. How foolish?”


Recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation inked an oil and gas deal with China’s State Construction Engineering Corporation. The deal is for the construction of three Greenfield refineries and a petrochemical plant in Nigeria.


Under the terms of the agreement, 80 per cent of the project cost is to be funded with a term loan provided by China Export Credit Insurance Corporation and a consortium of Chinese banks, led by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.


Alison-Madueke had revealed that the comprehensive feasibility study on the installations would be ready very soon.



http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20111014045775

Good news.

Indonesian journalism is crap, apparently. Either that or that minister (Panggah Susanto) takes hard drugs.

^^

Or maybe the Nigerian govt is just embarrassed by the attention and wasnt really ready for it, and would come out clean later.

Honestly, I have zero trust in what our govt says. I think there is some truth to the deal hullabaloo

The story sounds too weird and out of place to be believed, in my opinion. Indonesia's journalists and ministers are not infallible and the NNPC would not put out such a strong statement against the story if there was some truth to it.