…As FG saves $2m annually from local cement production – BUA CEO***
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday said government would focus on making refineries work and commercialising gas in 2018.
In a podcast released by Kachikwu in Abuja, he said government would also bring in the private sector to restructure dilapidated infrastructure.
”To the big picture of 2018 and early 2019, what are the key things we are going to focus on? First is the refineries. I have talked about this over again, it is important that we get these refineries working.
”We must exit importation in 2019 and we are happy Dangote is working very hard and bringing back the timeline for the completion of his refinery.
If we can do that, we are going to be saving the country over 30 per cent of forex application on importing petroleum products.
”Gas flare commercialisation, we have launched it, it is taking off, we are continuing to deepen our conversation with oil companies to ensure that we exit gas flare in over gas flare sites.
”Infrastructure is key to us, our infrastructure is 30/40 years old, completely dilapidated, can’t be funded by the government anymore.
“I am working with the NNPC and DPR to launch our infrastructure masterplan and bring people who can invest in them.
”There is the issue of crude tracking – how do we track every molecule of products we have, crude and refined products? We are putting together an IT platform that will enable us do this, we are working with DPR and hopefully by the 2019 the issues of whether we could not account for our crudes will no longer occur.
”We are planning our marginal fields’ rounds and we are also planning our inland basins rounds. It is going to be a transparent process to bring people to get us more oil.
“The rules are going to be out soon once it is approved by His Excellency,” he said.
Kachikwu said the he would like to see the sector hit 2.2 million barrels though subject to OPEC constraints and fixing the infrastructure was essential to this.
He said the government being able to exit the joint venture cash call had reassured multinationals of their need to invest in the country and they had invested over $14-15 billion dollars, which were for purposes of projects like Zabazaba and Bonga extension.
”We delivered an open NNPC, a lot of work still needs to be done there.
”We are going to be rolling out our fiscal policies which are now awaiting FEC approval.
“Those fiscal policies will expand income in the short term over $2 billion a year to the Federal Government but on a long term over $9 billion.
”On the back of that, we will be working with the assembly to transmit that into legislative provisions,” he said.
The minister said he would be going back to the Niger Delta to meet governors of the region and oil companies, to put a ‘seed’ to some of the agreements on ground.
In the meantime, the Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, has said that the local cement manufacturers produce over 25 million tonnes cement thus saving the country two million dollars annually.
He said this while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting of the Presidential Industrial Advisory Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa.
“The most important thing I think is that the cement industry in Nigeria will continue to save Nigeria a lot of foreign exchange.
“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange it is almost two billion dollars per year.
“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants definitely we have to import cement.
“And not only do we have to spend money in terms of foreign exchange import but the price of cement definitely would have been higher than what it is today,’’ he said.
Rabiu also spoke about the expansion of his company’s facilities in order to make more cement available for local consumption.
According to him, we will be inaugurating our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018, and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by second quarter of next year.
Rabiu mentioned the reduction of price of Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), and the appreciation of the local currency in the foreign exchange market as things that helped the sub-sector to grow.
“The foreign exchange has also come down; it is stable even though as we all know the cement industry does not really require a lot of foreign exchange.
“But the fall in foreign exchange rate has really helped in terms of the things that we import into Nigeria like spare parts, some raw materials like gypsum,’’ the industrialist said.
He acknowledged that a lot of issues to advance the industrial sector were discussed at the monthly Presidential Advisory Council meeting.
“As you all know this council is one that is trying to bring private sector together with the government to come up with ideas on how we can improve on a lot of things.
“Most especially infrastructure, power, roads and so many other things; I believe this is a good thing.
“The Council has made a lot of progress.
“A lot of areas have been identified that the government together with the private sector are going to work to see that work can start as soon as possible.
“In fact, I believe last week, one of the ideas that we presented was deliberated upon at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and approval was given.
“We are looking forward to another meeting and I believe in the next few months a lot of things will take shape as far as this council is concerned,’’ Rabiu added.
