Why Investors Not Interested in Building Refineries in Nigeria -- Ihonvbere.

(From Vanguard (Nigeria) - AAGM)

Byline: Emma Amaize

PROF Julius Ihonvbere, the Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Policy and Programmes Monitoring, yesterday, explained why private refineries have not come onstream in the country despite the fact that the Federal Government has given out 22 licenses to both foreign and local investors who applied to establish refineries.

He told Vanguard in an interview that "first of all, it is because as they said, the cost of refining petrol here and selling the product is much higher than the cost at which it was being sold and so it did not make any economic sense to them. That is why they are not building refineries."

Prof Ihonvbere who said that he personally took 10 to 15 foreign investors that came to build refineries to President Obasanjo disclosed, however, that "now that some deregulation is taking place in the oil sector, they are beginning to come to show interest; some are already bringing in equipment, doing feasibility studies and bringing in other foreign partners. So, I have a feeling that in two, three or four years, private refineries will be onstream in the country."