Olu Verheijen, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on energy, says the federal government is open to selling the refineries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Verheijen spoke in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday.
The presidential aide said the consideration was part of an effort to boost competition in the refining industry.
“It’s one of the options that you have to consider if you find the right technical partner with the right capital,” she said.
Verheijen noted that the plants have largely been sustained by subsidies, saying “but now that we’ve removed the subsidies, we’ve removed the distortions in that market
In October, NNPC said it had commenced a comprehensive technical and commercial review of the moribund refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.
On July 11, Bayo Ojulari, the group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the NNPC, said it is becoming a ‘bit more’ complicated to revamp state-owned refineries, hinting at completing an ongoing reassessment by year-end.
Speaking further, Verheijen said the government also sees a long-anticipated initial public offering for NNPC as “an end destination”.
“What’s really important to the shareholders is that we have an NNPC that’s a lot more transparent, a lot more efficient and delivers,” she said.
On Tuesday, Ojulari said NNPC has been enhancing transparency regarding its operations in preparation for the much-anticipated initial public offering.
