Now and again the news networks in Nigeria carry news and pictures of illegal petroleum refineries in the oil mineral producing areas of the country. The recent case of a discovery in Kogi State middle belt of Nigeria is only a deviation from the status quo.
The officers and men of the civil defense corps and other security forces have been in the vanguard of the destruction of these outfits by setting them ablaze to ensure a total wipe out of any discovered site.
It is quite to say exactly when this practice of refining crude oil illegally began in Nigeria but it does appear that the technology is it an art, may be very simple.
We have never been told that the people behind the activity of the assemblage of the illegal refineries and their operators are petroleum or chemical engineers or even scientists of any worthwhile or appreciable educational class or levels.
However the business keeps on sprouting, thriving and flourishing with ease and has equally kept our security forces busy or restless.
Ordinarily one would think that the government that ordered the destruction of the illegal refineries would take time to study the phenomenon which has refused to die. It is a known fact that this country is not known to have sufficient refineries which is why we have continued to make do with imported petroleum products from outside Nigeria.
It may even be possible to have expatriates teaching or lecturing in our only Petroleum Training Institute which has been upgraded to a university yet our existing refineries are bedeviled with functioning below capacity or not functioning at all.
Has there been a cost benefit analysis to ascertain that both our economic woes and the failure of our refineries are outcomes of illegal refineries.
The greatest argument of the federal government is that by ordering the destruction of the illegal refineries, pipe line vandalisation, bunkering and illegal refining would be discouraged and ultimately stopped so as to save the environment from the effects of oil spillages that accompany both illegal refineries and pipeline vandalisation.
However the destruction of the refineries by burning them has not done any good to the environment either.
Another argument is that, of all the components derivatives of crude petroleum, only petrol, diesel and kerosene are collected while the rest are wasted but this should be as a result of the fact that the people are under constant harassment and therefore too unsettled to positively think of the rest of the contents and what to do with their further extraction.
For many years Nigeria has continued to export crude oil without any attempt to add any value to it so as to increase yield.
If the illegal refineries are regularized, obviously secondary refineries would emerge to take care of the wastes of the primary refiners.
The argument that the products of the illegal refineries are of a low quality does not impress many of us because in a country where product scarcity or insufficiency is the order of the day, who cares for the source of whatever is available not to talk of quality. After all the ones that are imported and imposed on us have various colours and ordours, so what’s the difference.
I saw refineries operate in Biafra producing fuels that served their needs and sustenance. This could as well be labeled low quality like the fact remains that of the illegal refineries, but the condition under which they are refined enveloped with fear. It is either the fear of air raids from the Nigerian Air Force jets bomber planes on Biafra or the fear of the Security agents of destruction and arrests. The insert and most sensible way of defeating illegal refinery is to make the good quality fuels readily available. No one will leave the best and go for the fair.
What Nigeria need do now is to modify the illegal refineries rather than destroy them and from there, lunch into an indigenously designed and built refinery.
At a time in the past, petrol became such an essential commodity and a thorny issue in the lives of the citizenry that people usually spent upwards of four days queuing in petrol filling station to be able to buy a rationed 20 litres. This is if one succeeds at all.
Some men out of desperation fought each other even as they were clad in their three piece suits and ties.
Kerosene was once cheaper than petrol and so was diesel. What we heard next was that marketers were using the duo of kerosene and diesel to mix with petrol so as to heighten profit by dubious increase of the quantity. What followed was that prices were changed so as to discourage the practice of adulteration. We were led into the argument for deregulation after price equilibration. Even after all these there has never seized to be one scandal or another bedeviling the petroleum sector and till today we have not seen an end to those scandals. All be it, the product is still not available as would be expected of an OPEC country of Nigeria status.
For some weeks now, the rumour has been on that the President Jonathan recommended pump price of 97 naira per litre is about to be increased again perhaps just to keep Nigerian talking petrol always.
With the continued hide and seek game involving petrol supply and pricing, the illegal refineries will not stop and their harassment and hounding will not stop. However, the greatest inventor is the person who upon seeing what his people lacked invested something to satisfy that need. If the people are allowed to produce without fear of harassment, the quality of products will improve.
A situation where pipeline vandalisation and bunkering are discouraged by the recognition and protection of the operations of the illegal refineries so that they become pure business outfits for profit making – their own version of amnesty – would yield more positive results to the Nigerian economy.
My sincere advice is that the illegal refineries should be handled with greater caution and more tact. It is the way and manner our petroleum sector is being handled that gave rise to both bunkering and vandalisation. Let us say it point blank. Who and who are allocated oil blocks in Nigeria. By the way, did the deregulation exercise actually accommodate redistribution of the oil wells? Anyway, these are arguments for another write up.
All I want to say for now is let the continuing mistakes over the refineries stop forth with. I mean the destruction of the refineries which ought to be studied.
The first mistake was that of ensuring that the Biafran refineries died completely which today would have been making positive contribution to both employment and technological growth.
I doubt if the destruction of the refineries and the prosecution of the operators are making any positive contribution to the economy. If care is not taken we may be aiding the foreigners who buy our raw product at the price they fixed and equally force in to buy at their own price.
We may have forgotten too soon, what the colonial masters did with our local breweries whose products they tagged “illicit” and the producers were prosecuted and jailed. They killed our trade while promoting their own.
Today since after independence, the situation has changed and there are no more “illicit gins” in the market. We should take a cue from this.
