The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has demanded for transparency and investigation into allegations of importing and foisting ‘dirty’ fuels on Nigerians.

HOMEF, an ecological think tank made the advocacy in reaction to the feud between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and Dangote Refineries.

The group noted that inability of the NNPCL to refine petroleum products has been a huge shame and embarrassment to the nation.

The advocacy group noted that poor performance by NNPCL has over the decades forced Nigeria into the vice grip of forces of exploitation of colonial proportions by making her the largest exporter of crude oil and at the same time the largest importer of refined products of dubious quality.

Bassey, Executive Director, HOMEF noted that the company has epitomised one of the worst that can be imagined of any raw material exporter post colonial state anywhere in the world.

He explained that while HOMEF acknowledges the high ecological costs of the entire petroleum industry value chain, it regrets that the failure of the comatose NNPC refineries is a key factor that has allowed toxic bush refineries to proliferate to fill the yawning gaps.

“The importation of refined petroleum products has equally foisted heavy economic pressures on the hapless citizens of Nigeria.

“The arrival of the Dangote Refinery, has its own huge ecological baggage, especially regarding the plight of neighboring communities and the general environment.

“That’s besides the bigger issues related to the creation and operation of what has come to be known as economic zones of exemption.

“HOMEF is alarmed by the cloudy controversies around the Dangote Refinery. The role of the NNPC in the unfolding disputes highlight the opacity of the sector and the inbuilt boobytraps in the regulatory frameworks under which the sector operates.

“Nigeria entered the oil refining business shortly after independence with the first refinery built in Port Harcourt to meet domestic needs and curb over reliance on importation.

“The Nigerian government acquired the refinery by successive increase of shareholding starting at 50% in 1965 and increased to 60% in 1972 and taking up sole ownership by 1978.

“The name also had a systematic shift from the Nigeria Petroleum Refining company to NNPC Refinery, Port Harcourt,” Bassey said.

Tracing the historical perspectives further, the renowned environmentalist said that in response to the growing demand for refined products, three other refineries were set up.

They are Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company with 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity and commissioned in 1978; Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company with 110,000 bpd capacity, commissioned in 1980; and the New Port Harcourt Refinery 150,000 bpd capacity commissioned in 1989.

The total installed capacity of all four refineries was 445,000 bpd.

“By the early 1990s, the military government at the time ordered the NNPC to close all its accounts and transfer them to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“This arguably marked the beginning of the downward spiral in the performance of the refineries that once served the local petroleum needs as well as the contributory feedstock needs of other dependent industries.

“Successive “democratic” governments continued to fan the embers of this unproductive but self-serving arrangement, solidifying it with Bills that followed and obviously passed by cronies hooded in different cloaks.

“The sad realities in the sector include poor governance, poor or non-existent turn around maintenance for the refineries, industrial scale oil theft and even the appointments to offices for political control as seen in having serving presidents appointing themselves as Ministers of Petroleum,” he said.

Bassey noted that a conundrum of dependency on exportation of raw crude oil and importation of refined products, along with corrupt subsidy regimes remains intractable to date.

According to the environmentalist, the Dangote Refinery held the possibility of boosting the refining capacity of Nigeria and meeting the domestic petroleum needs, with its 650,000 bpd capacity.

He said that the news that Nigeria through the NNPC Ltd would have a 20% share in the refinery raised questions including about why the corporation could not focus on making its own refineries work.

“Now we hear that the 20% investment actually stymied at 7.2% due to inability of the supposedly profit-making company to meet up its financial obligations on schedule.

“Before the recent closed-door meetings between the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Dangote Refineries there were insinuations and counter insinuations suggesting an in-fighting.

“We hear of disputes over the quality of refined products and issues of whether full approvals have been obtained by the private refinery for it to even commence operations.

Bassey quoted the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commissions (NUPRC) as saying that: “The refiners failed in operational approaches because there are operational standards for crude oil supply. It goes along with international best practices.

“The local refiners will not put payment instruments in place as expected. They were not also doing revision of delayed vessels at the right time. They will not fix the vessel to pick the crude at the right time or they will bring the wrong specification of vessels.

“These are operational inefficiencies on the part of the local refiners.”

Reacting to the situation, the Bassey, said: “It is time for the NNPC to come clear on the questions over the quality of products imported petroleum products as well as those coming out of the Dangote Refinery. Nigerians also deserve to know what volume of shares it holds in the refinery.

“The public deserves to have clarity about what is also going on with regard to subsidies on imported petroleum products since the purported elimination of subsidies provided one of the planks aiding the economic strangulation of the Nigerian peoples.”

Bassey also demanded a participatory social and environmental audit of all the refineries in the country and put in place environmental management plans to ensure the safety of fence line communities in Lekki, Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.

Also, Stephen Oduware, HOMEF’s Fossil Politics Programme Manager said: “If anything is clear it is that there are huge transparency questions over the sectoral regulatory frameworks and that the artificially created complexities orchestrated by the NNPCL as have heaped an avoidable burden on the masses.”

HOMEF called on the Federal Government to ensure the full operations of her refineries and equally activate an audit of the unfolding crisis.

“The government should also ensure a depoliticization of the petroleum sector.

“Another important step will be to ensure that the president of Nigeria does not double as the head of the Petroleum Resources Ministry,” HOMEF said.