Total MD Makes Case For Local Refineries

The Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Mr. Dominuc Thorlorn has said that the building of more local refineries in Nigeria will go a long way to boost the Nigerian oil industry, and promote the economic wellbeing of the nation.

The managing director made the disclosure in Lagos at a programme organized ahead of the company’s annual general meeting coming up on Wednesday.

According to Mr. Thorlorn, the building of such local refineries can be achieved through the planned deregulation of the down- stream sub-sector of the oil industry.

He noted that the functionality of the local refineries will strengthen the Nigerian local content policy by encouraging indigenous entrepreneurship in the oil industry, while fostering foreign partnership to check scarcity of petroleum products.

He listed other benefits of the deregulation exercise to include direct foreign investment and saving of money budgeted annually to subsidise the cost of petroleum products.

He noted that a situation whereby the government used a large chunk of its resources to subsidise the cost of products was not in the best interest of the nation’s economic growth.

He added that the costly subsidies were having negative impact on the economy as there constituted a disincentive to investment, citing countries like Indonesia and Ghana as those that are already reaping from subsidies removed from prices of consumer goods.

The Total boss expressed hope in the potentials of the Nigeria oil and gas industry to turn around the economic fortunes of the country, but insisted that such rosy dream can only be achieved through proactive actions.

Beemene Taneh