Ifeanyi Ubah, chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has urged the federal government to be intentional about the modular refineries as a strategy to ending Nigeria’s fuel scarcity.

Mr Ubah said this on Thursday at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, U.S.

“I am proposing that the government should come up with a very laudable position to stimulate the development of modular refineries that can refine crude oil within the riverine areas and use competent experts to operate them.

“The government needs to take a big leap in investing in these modular refineries. They will grow bigger. We do not need to place the sector on a single operator. Nobody does it. Everybody wants to maximise profit. The only thing that will crash prices is competition.

“We can use between $300 million and $500 million to establish one refinery and the owners can recoup their monies within five to 10 years. We can use money from Local content and other sources to energise modular refineries. This will make Nigeria self-reliant in refining its petroleum products. So, let us take a step,” Mr Ubah said.

Regarding government-owned refineries, Mr Uba said that the government could encourage different experts to form consortia to buy them.

“The people in authority should advise the government to take the right steps. We do not need people who will advise the government to monopolise the space. Already, we have set up a technical team to visit the refineries every two weeks to make sure that they work because this is a mandate given to me,” he said.

On gas flaring, Mr Ubah said, “We intend to hold a public hearing in the next few weeks in about nine states of the federation. This will enable us to hear from the locals. Many stakeholders, including Nigerian Civil Defence, the Nigerian Army, The Nigerian Navy, the Police and other security agencies, and NNPC Ltd., will tell us about important issues, especially pipeline vandalism and oil theft.”

He added, “We are going to advise the government on some of these issues from a legislative perspective.”

According to him, the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries will be fully operational by the end of the year. Plans have already been implemented to achieve the target, and the Kaduna Refinery will also be operational before the end of 2025.

“With an additional 650,000 production capacity of Dangote Refinery, when it’s finally completed, it will boost domestic fuel demand,” said the senator.

The senator also urged the federal government and other stakeholders to work toward establishing modular refineries to expand further the nation’s domestic capacity to refine crude oil.

(NAN)