Refinery Owners Back Tinubu On Subsidy Removal

The Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) has thrown its weight behind President Bola Tinubu over the removal of fuel subsidy.

The group also renewed its call on the Central Bank of Nigeria to create a window of intervention Fund for its members to enable them complete their modular refinery plants; address the problem of guaranteed supply of crude to the refineries with naira payments, guaranteed offtake of the products and removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks from the regulatory bodies are some urgent issues for resolution.

CORAN, a registered association of modular and conventional refinery companies in Nigeria, congratulateTinubu on his election and successful swearing in and commended his bold steps taken in keeping with his campaign promises, to effect the deregulation of the downstream sector of the Petroleum industry in Nigeria.

CORAN chairman executive committee, Mr Momoh Jimah Oyarekhua  and secretary

Olusegun Ilori, in a statement, yesterday, said the bold steps would not only save the country huge amounts of resources hitherto spent on subsidies at a critical time when the country is grappling with revenue shortfall, but also open a new vista for Economic growth and revenue expansion through increased local and direct foreign investment.

They also said the present challenge relating to regulatory agencies duplicating licenses and permits and engaging in conflicting directives is putting operators in a confusing state of affairs and should be addressed immediately.

“Our Associations extends our hand our fellowship to the administration in putting this

petroleum subsidy debacle out of the way.”

They said the above mentioned quick wins, which are contained in the White Paper Of The Report of the Committees On establishment Of Modular Refinery Intervention Funding and Technical Committee on Crude Oil Domestic Supply Obligation

midwifed by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources with the NUPRC, NMDPRA,

NNPCL, CBN and other stakeholders involved, would help in the process of getting more local refineries to come on stream.

According to them, the anticipated capacity expansion in the production of local crude refineries of our members will ultimately solve the challenge of domestic petroleum product refining that have bedeviled the country for years. This coupled with the aggressive job creation within the Mid and Downstream sectors of the Petroleum industry will boost the economy ,

“Members of CORAN are confident that Mr President’s administration will pay attention and contribute immensely to the ongoing repositioning of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry particularly the development of the MidStream and Downstream Segments with the aim of moving the country from an Import reliant country to a major refining and net exporter of refined petroleum product.”