Meeting to solve Nigerian crisis

2003-10-16 08:03

Abuja - A high-level meeting opens in Abuja on Thursday to resolve a deepening crisis facing the Nigerian oil sector, which accounts for more than 95% of the nation's foreign exchange earnings, officials said.

State governors, fuel marketers, oil companies, government and labour officials, oil experts and representatives of the state-run oil company, NNPC, are expected to attend the meeting where all problems related to the oil sector will be discussed, they said.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Central Working Committee met on Wednesday in Lafia, capital of the central state of Nassarawa, to prepare its strategies ahead of the crucial meeting, convened after the union called off its planned strike last week over a recent fuel price hike.

NLC president Adams Oshiomhole said at Wednesday's meeting that labour activists "strategised on how to solve the problem of putting in place a nationally acceptable oil policy with regards to pricing, supply and distribution".

In past years, the issue of proper accounting and judicial spending of revenues derived fron crude oil sales have generated a lot of controversy.

Critics accused the military government of military president Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993) of a lack of transparency in the handling and management of Nigeria'se more than US$12bn windfall from oil during the 1991 Gulf War.

The regime of General Sani Abacha (1993-98) was accused of plundering the nation's treasury, stashing billions of dollars in foreign banks, most of it realised from oil.

The nation's four refineries are down, with only one left barely performing at less than 40% of its installed refining capacity of 150 000 barrels of crude per day.

The underperformance of the nation's oil refineries, which have a combined capacity to refine 450 000 barrels per day, has forced Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, to import refined fuel.

Fuel scarcity has been the resultant effect in the past years.

The Nigerian government said Wednesday it was seeking international buyers for the refineries as part of its slow-moving privatisation programme.

An announcement published in national newspapers said the government has decided to sell 51% or more of its shares in the four refineries, including management and control, to private international investors.

The government hopes that the sell-off will generate revenues as well as improve the performance of the ailing refineries.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose regime has increased fuel prices three times since it came to power in 1999, fully deregulated the oil sector on October 1, a decision that sent fuel prices soaring.

Despite anger against the hike by the labour movement and most Nigerians, the government has maintained that the policy would guarantee regular fuel supplies because it encourages competition among private fuel marketers and disengages the government from fuel importation.

Fuel marketers support the government's move.

"Deregulation will allow market forces to determine prices of petroleum products. The marketers are ready and willing to fully support the government's initiative," the marketers said in a statement published Wednesday in national dailies.

A court in Abuja on Tuesday charged six trade unionists who had picketed fuel stations with "criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance", and ordered that they remain in jail until October 20.

The charges carry prison terms of between six months and three years on conviction.

Thursday's meeting is expected to discuss how to "strike a balance between the promotion of national economic interest, the interests of Nigerian citizens and the interests of all those involved in the entire oil industry", a unionist said.

- AFP