The federal government has said the deregulation of the petroleum downstream sub-sector would enable it to rake in over N1 trillion annually for the development of the country.
The federal government recently said that it was unrealistic to continue with the burden of subsidising Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to the tune of billions of Naira every year.
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It also argued that the rich were benefiting more from subsidy than the poor or ordinary Nigerians.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, in Abuja, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said with deregulation, the federal government would fix the moribund refineries in the country to make them commercially viable and create more jobs for the citizens.
“Talking about refineries; what we have done is to sequence the rehabilitation of the refineries.
“We are going to start first with Port Harcourt refinery.
“In Port Harcourt, we have two refineries; the old refinery and the new refinery.
“The old refinery of 60,000 barrels and the new refinery which has a total capacity of 250,000 capacity barrels.
“Now, there is going to be a third refinery within Port Harcourt which is going to collocate, it is going to be a private refinery in Port Harcourt.
“That project will be signed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“And by the first quarter of 2021, work will start in earnest.
“Discussions are ongoing with rehabilitations of Warri and Kaduna as well.
“Already, we have taken up the budgetary provision for subsidy which is about N500 billion in the budget.
“It is time for Nigerians to face reality and do the right thing.
“What is deregulation going to do?
“It is going to free up a lot more money.
“At least, from the very beginning, it will save us up to a trillion and more every year.
“Already, we have taken off the budgetary provision for subsidy which is about N500 billion in the budget.
“Also, we have taken off the excess forex price that special rate that was given to NNPC which also came at a cost.
“So, all the money that we used to defend the Naira at that time to subsidise the dollar will now be freed up for development.
“And, I believe that going forward, we will begin to see a lot more development, a lot more money available to the government that will be put into critical infrastructure instead of being burnt in our cars,” the minister said.
He said the government planned to, within one month, roll out a programme that would result in the introduction of auto gas as an alternative to fuel to be used for converted cars in the country.
Fuel subsidy removal
The Nigerian government had, last week, increased petrol price to 151.56 per liter from 148, the third increase in the last three months.
It said the oil and gas sector is now completely deregularised with market forces determining prices of petroleum products going forward.
This move by the government is currently being resisted by most Nigerians as protests erupt in many states of the country.
On Thursday morning, protest against fuel price hike in parts of Lagos was disrupted by security agents with some of the protesters arrested in the course of the protest.
Daily Trust reports that the protest, organised by the Socialist Party of Nigeria, (SPN), started from Yaba with protesters marching towards Surulere and Ojuelegba.
But the protesters met stiff resistance from the Police and officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) who allegedly arrested some of the protesters including journalists covering the protest.
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