Th e Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) yesterday commended the federal government on the proposed second refi nery in the Northern part of the country. Th e Vice-Chairman, SouthWest Chapter of the union, Mr Benjamin Rotimi, said in Lagos that the initiative would reduce hardship associated with transporting petroleum products. On April 22, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, told journalists in Bauchi state that the federal government planned to build a second refi nery in the northern part of Nigeria.
Kachikwu said plans to put the Kaduna refi nery in better shape were also underway. Rotimi said the plans of the government were laudable and would help in ensuring the availability of the product round the country. “Th e second refi nery will also provide employment and increase circulation of products in the north. “With the discovery of oil in some states in the north, the second refi nery will help in refi ning it.
“Th is is what we should have done more than 10 years ago,” he said. Th e union leader, however, urged the federal government to also think of building more refi neries in other parts of the country. He noted that the country’s present refi neries could only produce 30 per cent of Nigeria’s consumption needs, as that they were built when the nation’s population stood at 80 million. “Even when they work at optimal level, the refi neries still cannot solve our requirement because they were built when our population was small. “Now, we have double and the demand has become higher with more vehicles on our roads,’’ he said.
