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Govt may review oil
refinery licences
By
Oguwike Nwachuku
Group
News Editor
Abuja
is poised to review the provisional licences given to some firms which
applied to go into oil refining, as part of measures to end the recurrent
fuel crisis.
Indications
that the 18 firms which benefited from the provisional licences may not
have a lasting laugh emerged at the weekend when a source in the
Presidency said the government is beginning to view them as part of the
problem.
He
said the government believes there is a cabal in the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is working in tandem with other
agencies within and outside the government to frustrate efforts being made
to sanitise the petroleum industry.
According
to the source, the government may be compelled to review or even withdraw
some of the provisional licences in the national
interest.
Besides,
it was disclosed that a keen eye is being kept on the NNPC where the
government believes that so many officials have compromised their
positions.
The
source, a minister who was part of last week�s Federal Executive Council
(FEC) meeting, explained that the NNPC has, for example, been compelled to
give account of the N390 million it claims it spends every day to
subsidise fuel.
His
words: �The government thinks that there should be an Act of Parliament on
how deductions from the Federation Account should be done. A situation
whereby the NNPC says it deducts money to subsidise fuel from source
should no longer be acceptable. For instance, if the government wants to
deduct money from the Federation Account we should
know�.
He
defended the position of the Presidency on the deregulation of the oil
sector and the need for Labour not to see incessant strikes as solution to
the problem, saying the first step towards solving the problem is for the
NNPC to allow all monies accruing to it to go into the Federation
Account.
�I
think NNPC has so much money that is unaccounted for to spend and to pay
because it gains so much from importation and illegal deductions. It is
wrong for the agency to import fuel on everybody�s
behalf�.
However,
he tried to locate part of the problem of why the firms that were given
provisional licences to refine fuel are not functioning, saying they may
be working with some NNPC officials to frustrate the
idea.
�I
can assure you that they stand to lose those licences as the government is
poised to find out why nothing has happened ever since they were given the
approval�.
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