Experts make case for artisanal refineries in Niger

Stakeholders in the Niger Delta have urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to speed up its plan to authorize communities in the region to operate their own refineries in order to empower them, gainfully engage most of their restive youths, as well as save bye products being wasted in illegal refineries now operational .

The stakeholders spoke at the National Conference on Oil Theft and Artisanal Refineries in Nigeria, held in Le Meredien Hotel Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, while condemning the activities of oil thieves and collaborators.

Experts who spoke on the issue pointed out that the harsh economic situation in the region remained a key factor in the setting up of illegal refineries in the region which were causing serious environmental hazards.

Prof. Ben Naanen, who delivered a paper on artisanal refineries traced the stealing of petroleum products since the late 70s by mainly military personnel who were given the responsibility to protect the flow of petroleum products in the country.

The Professor said that by 2003, youths from the Niger Delta were neck deep in oil bunkering, describing “oil theft” as a recent term that should be looked at while also looking at its root causes.

Accvording to him: “A fundamental fact which we often find difficult to admit is the perception of many Niger Delta youths to live the corrupt comfort of elites without a corresponding level of enterprise all because oil is produced in the Niger Delta.

“Such unrealistic expectation has a strong connection to the frustration and anger that make the youth go after pipelines and innocent people in the region. The political backlash of the failure of the Nigerian state and the International Oil Companies to deliver to the Niger Delta the social dividend of the oil economy has been devastating.

“The emergent militant groups, initially driven by an ideological zeal and the Niger Delta proto nationalism, launched an armed resistance, destroying oil facilities, seizing foreign oil workers as hostages, and generally made the region insecure for oil operations.”

Continuing, he added: “People have argued about the low quality and danger of artisanal fuels but with such large price disparity between the regular fuel and the artisanal variety, the people don’t seem to care. After all, most diesel engines, usually tolerant of poor fuel, readily accept ‘kpofire’ diesel.

“Under this condition, little wonder many communities in the Niger Delta hardly see anything wrong in with illegal refining and reject the term “oil theft,” he said.

Speaking also, another expert, Mr. Waziri Adio, the executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, in his paper said that “chronic poverty and glaring underdevelopment has filled grassroots unrest in the Niger Delta.”

Mr. Adio said that in the interest of long term sustainability, the government has to address the issue artisanal refining in the region.

“Political scientists and economists though believe that government can make deliberate policy decisions that help avoid some of the negative consequences of extraction and minimize the benefits.

“It is that belief that the prudent use of natural resource wealth can lead to sustainable economic growth, which will in turn have a positive impact of sustainable development and poverty reduction that led to the establishment of NEITI in 2003…

“The chronic poverty and glaring underdevelopment has fuelled grassroots unrest in the Niger Delta. Which such grassroots unrest has led to a demand by activists and politicians for a larger share of the nation’s oil wealth, it has also inadvertently increased criminal activities. This include militant attacks on oil installations, oil theft and artisinal refineries. These actions have been justified by participants as part of the struggle for greater resource control in the Niger Delta,” he said.

In his own speech at the event, King Bebe Okpabi, the traditional ruler of Ogale, an oil producing community in Eleme Local Government Area, lamented the destruction and pollution of his community and other Niger Delta communities by oil companies, describing the move by the Federal Government to give licenses to modular refiners was a welcome development, noting that the youths who are labelled as bad boys only want to survive by engaging in kpofire, the illegal refining of petroleum products.

He stated: “I have come to make a lamentation as a father. If the Nigerian state wants to really assist the Niger Delta region, like the Vice President said, the moves to legalize illegal refineries in the area should be actualized.”