Despite the thump up given for the commercialization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, observers of the oil and gas industry however said the refineries would be the company’s albatross.
They said except the company decides to do away with its refineries which are requiring humongous amount of money to fix, then it would never be able to run profitably.
“The new NNPC Limited must identify profitable portfolios and operations and shed assets that are not profitable.”
“The NNPC must have to jettison the refineries because it would be an uphill task for it to resuscitate them because of the amount of money that it would require to fix them. No one is sure if it would be able to raise the amount that would be needed for them to come on stream.”
A former group executive director in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mansur Ahmed while commending the stakeholders for achieving this feat, however, stated that he hope the same stakeholders would allow the new dream of running the company commercially to sail through
Mansur Ahmed who was on Arise Television said: “I hope the interested parties that derive benefits from NNPC, I mean the rent seekers, and government agencies that want to retain control would truly allow it to operate as a commercial entity.”
He said he believes with increased efforts by all parties the venture would succeed. According to him, there are lots of stakeholders that want to maintain the status quo, international stakeholders inclusive.
He said now that the operating environment of the NNPC, has been reset, it would be tough for the government and the NNPC Limited.
The former NNPC directors, who described the NNPC Limited as new wine in an old bottle, said that there must be a transition period, a target period for ownership change and the process must be properly guided and defined.
He however congratulated the NNPC and its board for this feat, and said that the journey started over 30 years ago, 1987 to be precise, but was derailed because the operating environment was stalled by the government itself
