Illegal refinery operators are set to be integrated into the mainstream sector by the government as promised by Professor Yemi Osinbajo during his time as Acting President of Nigeria.
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The Federal Government is currently putting up plans to ensure that some illegal refineries in the Niger Delta and local communities in the region shareholders will be proposed to modular refineries concept.
This is one of the falls-out of the ongoing engagements in the region being spearheaded by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. A government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Sunday.
He said the plan to integrate the illegal refineries was in fulfillment of one of the promises made to stakeholders in the region by Osinbajo on behalf of the Federal Government.
The source however said hurdles to be crossed in order to fulfill the promise included how to devise engineering, technical and financial models that would be workable and profitable.
He said the Presidency was working with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Agency to achieve the objective.
The official said, “At a meeting late last week at the Presidential Villa, issues around technical and engineering implications of how to integrate the refiners were discussed with industry experts and practitioners making presentations on how to implement the Buhari presidency modular refinery initiative said to have been first proposed by Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.