A petroleum marketer and Chairman of the Stakeholders Committee of Tank Farm Operators at Ibru-Ibafon Jetty; Geoffrey Okorie has appealed to the Federal Government, that rather than the continuous destruction of illegal refineries mostly sighted in the Niger Delta region, it should encourage the indigenes and train them on how to use their talents legally.
A petroleum marketer and Chairman of the Stakeholders Committee of Tank Farm Operators at Ibru-Ibafon Jetty; Geoffrey Okorie has appealed to the Federal Government, that rather than the continuous destruction of illegal refineries mostly sighted in the Niger Delta region, it should encourage the indigenes and train them on how to use their talents legally.
Okorie told Shipping Position Daily that other countries had adopted the same measure and had made success in refining their crude. This according to him is necessary because the refineries in Nigeria are currently not working.
It will be recalled that the National Conference sitting in Abuja last week rejected a proposal that government should understudy and further develop the technology being used by illegal crude refineries in the Niger Delta. This was part of its deliberations on the report of the Committee on Science and Technology.
But, speaking with our correspondent, Okorie said that, “the boys operating the illegal refineries need to be encouraged, Taiwan today is taking over technology because they were imitating, locally we can construct a refinery that can even complement what we are importing, we have the raw material which is the crude oil”.
But the conference while debating the report of the Committee on Science and Technology which called on the government to consider as an initiative to boost local refining capacity a proposal to develop the technology used by illegal oil refinery operators in the Niger Delta area.
According to the committee, "government should assist the illegal crude refiners in order to help develop locally made refining technology”. It said “government must deliberately harness the potentials being used by the illegal oil refinery operators and by so doing increase our local refining capacity."
However, a prominent Niger Delta traditional ruler; the Amanyanabo of Nembe, in Bayelsa State, Edmund Dakoru defended the position taken by delegates to discourage illegal refineries operation in the country, saying even though some of the persons engaged in the illegal oil refining are his kindred; their operations are not only very crude and damaging, but are against the national interest.
He said both the bye-product and mechanism adopted are economically not feasible. "Even though the perpetrators of the illegal refining are my boys, national interest should be paramount and I support the rejection of illegal refineries" he said.
Discussion about this post