Tinubu and Why Port Harcourt/Warri/Kaduna Refineries Will Never Work in the Near Future

By Ifeanyi Izeze

President Tinubu

The administration of President Bola Tinubu is barely 14 months in office but the revealed enormousness of sleaze, as alleged, is making both what we heard and saw in Jonathan and Buhari years combined look like kiddies’ play.

Now we are being told some mind-blowing things about the scam in the nation’s oil refining subsector thanks to the NNPC quarrel with Dangote and his refinery.

As alleged, some powerful Nigerians have been operating a crude blending and a refining plant in Malta.

President Tinubu and his family’s OANDO was unequivocally mentioned as the operator/owner of the blending and refining complex from where fuel is imported into Nigeria.

If the allegation is true, as it seems to be since neither OANDO nor the President himself has denied it, it only goes to confirm Tinubu’s inbred greed and corruption. It has nothing to do with business acumen but outright heartlessness?

No wonder Nigerians are suffering and paying so much for fuel despite being blessed with abundant crude oil and three and half existing state-owned refineries deliberately crippled despite billions of dollars expended on their repairs so we can continue to bring fuel from outside including the Malta refining complex.

Recently, Oando Plc announced the approval to acquire 100 percent of all onshore assets belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC). This effectively means that the Tinubu family now owns Agip, which is part of Eni S.p.A., an Italian multinational oil and gas giant.

Agip Oil operates 17 onshore oil blocks and produces 11 million barrels of oil and condensates annually, and it also manages the Bonny natural gas liquefaction plant. One might wonder why such a successful company would divest 100 percent of such a critical asset.

Observing similar situations, like the case with Dangote, suggests that this sale may not have been made lightly/willingly.

Now, these crucial oil fields and plants in Nigeria are under the control of Tinubu through Oando Plc which is Tinubu’s family- owned not even NNPC.

Continuing, with their control over substantial oil reserves in the Niger Delta and the ability to explore further through Agip acreages, their next step is refining. And instead of building a refinery in Nigeria, they opted to covertly construct one in Malta. This move allows them to exploit the country’s resources and obscure their activities.

In early 2021, Enemed Co Ltd, the leading fuel supplier in Malta, issued a tender for the leasing of storage tanks and a blending facility at the Ras Hanzir Oil Terminal in Malta.

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Ras Hanzir Oil Terminal Limited won the bidding. It is owned and operated by the Tinubu family, with Wale Tinubu, who is also the chairman of Oando Plc, serving as its chairman along with other members of the Tinubu family and their associates.

See the board of Ras Hanzir Oil Terminal Limited. The company engaged in crude oil blending business in Malta and shipping the dirty products to Nigeria.

1. Wale Tinubu – Chairman (also Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc)

2. Mofe Boyo – Non-Executive Director (also Deputy Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc)

3. Olufemi Adeyemo – Non-Executive Director

4. Adewale Tinubu Jr. – Executive Director

5. Omar Faraj – Non-Executive Director

6. Mark B. Davis – Non-Executive Director (also a former executive at Trafigura)

The company has already established a functioning refinery in Malta, they have now acquired the storage tanks and blending facility oil terminals, which were recently exposed to the public.

Immediately after Tinubu was sworn- in as president, his first major move in his inauguration speech was to announce the removal of fuel subsidy and that singular pronouncement upturned everything in the country including economic and socio-political lives of the citizenry.

Meanwhile, months into his administration, it was leaked that subsidy has been reinstated through the backdoor while the prices of fuel had moved from N140 per litre to over N800 per litre that currently prevails at major markets. The government continued to pay in secret, allowing him to increase petroleum product prices.

Now, this is the big one: With the recent forced acquisition of Nigerian Agip by Oando Plc, Tinubu as an individual has become the largest oil exporter, explorer, and marketer in the whole country, second only to NNPC.

Here’s the pattern: Tinubu, through NNPC, will sell Nigeria’s oil to himself at a low price via his company in Malta. He will also explore, extract and export oil using his newly acquired Agip Oil Company, which operates across the Niger Delta states with some of the most prolific onshore field in our arena.

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Tinubu will then buy back the refined oil from his company in Malta through NNPC and as an oil marketer via one of his companies OVH Energy(Oando) at a higher price and export them back to Nigeria.

The refined oil is sold to the Nigerian public at a high price, while the subsidy, although officially removed, is still being paid secretly. Essentially, Tinubu is paying himself subsidy.

Even after he leaves office, and Nigeria remains without refinery which he will make sure of, his Oil Monopoly over the country will remain standing. As if that is not enough, the government will still pay him for subsidy!

He sold Over 2 billion dollars’ worth of petroleum products to Nigeria through the Malta refinery just in 2023 alone, that’s an example of what the future of Nigeria Oil importation will look like.

That’s why he will fight the Dangote refinery with everything he has; if it becomes operational, his multi-trillion-naira oil monopoly enterprise will collapse.

The price of petroleum products like fuel will keeping increasing, while he still pays himself subsidy. That is why our refineries are not working.

This revelation made following the Dangote dispute was what forced the Federal government to go into closed door negotiation with Dangote Refinery few days back. After which the government came out to announce to us that NNPC has agreed now to make available crude oil feedstock for the Dangote Plant. The company is expected to pay in Naira as well.

Just for you to know the source of our problems and why the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna Refineries may never work in the near future. Nigeria we hail thee!

The powerful role of the big oil traders namely Glencore, Trafigura and Vitol in the current saga between the NNPC and Dangote is not farfetched as it’s well capture and would be discussed in another piece.

Now for instance, every Nigerian who buys 5 litres of fuel for generator-powered business operation spends over N2,000 more than the cost of fuel upto May 28, 2023!

If you buy 10 litres of fuel a day, President Tinubu’s administration is taking over N4,000 more from you to warehouse in his Oando Plc.

How else can anyone explain this if not to say, the scheme was deliberately designed to benefit Tinubu’s own monopoly. If this is not an extraordinary level of greed and financial exploitation, how else can anybody describe it?

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If these weighty allegations are smear campaigns, we await President Tinubu and his OANDO to come clear on this at least that would rest the unpalatable story.

Enyi naga nanyi sogi nazu; Gwooo! Gwooo! Gwooo! Ngwooooo!

• Izeze is a National Daily Columnist and can be reached on: [email protected]; 234-8033043009