Refineries will not work by December- Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that refineries will not become functional by December despite the projection of the current administration.

Obasanjo made this known in an exclusive interview with The Cable on Tuesday.

He revealed that while he was in office, the Shell Oil Development Company (SPDC) turned down his offer of handling the nation’s refineries saying that they’ll never work as long as the government is holding onto them.

He said: “They will not work as long as the government is keeping hold of them. When I was President, I invited Shell to a meeting. I told them I wanted to hand over the refineries for them to help us run. They bluntly told me they would not. I was shocked.

“I repeated the request and they stood their ground. When the meeting was over, I asked their big man (MD) to wait behind for a little chat. Then I asked him why they were so hesitant on not taking over the refineries. He said did I want to hear the truth? I said yes. He listed four reasons. One, he said Shell makes its money from upstream and that is where its interest lies. Two, he said they only do downstream or retail as a matter of service. Three, he said our refineries would be bad business for them, that globally, companies are going for bigger refineries because of the economics of refineries. Four, he said there is too much corruption in refineries.

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