BUREAU OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES CONFIRMS PLANS TO PRIVATISE REFINERIES.

 

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has confirmed that it would privatize the four refineries in the country next year. Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, the Bureau’s Head, Public Communications, said that the refineries’ privatisation is part of the ongoing oil sector’s reforms. Last week, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, told newsmen in London that the country would privatise its four government-owned refineries in the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream sector) has given conditions upon which the proposed sale of Nigeria’s refineries would be achieved. The Senate would like to know for instance, which refinery they want to privatise first; the terms of such privatization, and what the benefits are. It declared at the weekend that the issues necessitating the sale of the country’s four refineries would be treated based on serious consideration of the status and operational efficiency of each of the nation’s four refineries.