A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, has said that instead of destroying illegal refineries in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government should license and regulate them.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday that the government should leverage on the skills of operators of the refineries to develop small outlets for refining crude oil for domestic use.

Agbonayinma, who represents Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Constituency of EdoState, said his advice became necessary because the persons given licences to build refineries by previous administrations had failed to do so.

He said the number of illegal refineries being destroyed and the rate at which they resurfaced had shown that the operators had some engineering skills that government should harness.

He said, “The activities of illegal refinery operators should be regulated,licences should be issued to them and crude oil allocated to them based on their capacities.

“In the civilised countries, what to do is to bring all those youths and look for a way to harness their brains rather than destroy the refineries.

“They are doing what government cannot do by consistently refining crude oil into petroleum products; they deserve to be assembled and encouraged to do it better, under regulations.”

domack99:
The reason why those illegal refining were profitable business is because the crude used were stolen, is FG going to license illegal bunker too.

saintkash:
license illegal refineries when there never got there crude supply from genuine source? licensing these guys is more or less giving amnesty to them cos there r criminals. .... there activity alone has cost government billions of cash... maybe if the word "amnesty" illegal refinery operators would convince me but not licensing them....

my opinion though.

domack99:
The reason why those illegal refining were profitable business is because the crude used were stolen, is FG going to license illegal bunker too.

Proudlyngwa:

Boss by your moniker, I believe you are an engineer and also from the east. Just like me. So I will take the pain to explain this gradually so it won't turn to issues of sentiments based on hate.

I have been able to reach some actual so called refineries and this things are nothing close to refineries, they are more of distilleries.
Crude oil products range feom solids i.e plastics , to slurry i.e grease, to heavy fluid engine oil then kero, diesel, petrol , brake fluid and then gas.
What this illegal refinery does is steal crude and then distillate for mostly diesel, kerosine or petrol in its crudest form.
Permit me to say that petrol is just 30% of crude oil, in other words this illegal refineries will be running at a mega loss if they were getting the crude legally.
Also the products of this illegal refineries are dangerous. That is why you have kerosine that explodes because they were not degassed.
Most people don't use condescent for anything but I pass my neighbour generator.
While most heavy duty engines have packed up because of the diesel could not be properly separated from other heavy like fuel .
The waste is not also properly managed as they can't afford standard waste management procedures.

So legalizing them or upgrading them won't just cut as they are completely useless and only survive because of stolen crude so any lawmaker asking for their legalisation needs to have their head examined.

blueto:
FG can establish mechanisms through which they can source the crudes legitimately, the funds raised from selling selling the refined products to emptors will be channelled back for further legal procurement of the crudes.

jakiedudu:
That is the way to go. If govt engaged this people making illegal refineries, we did be buying petrol at a much cheaper rate by now.

Proudlyngwa:
There is a reason they are called illegal.
We can as well license illegal drug production centers.
Illegal tertiary institutions.
Illegal foods and beverages.

Sometimes I wonder, whether the cause of our problems is in the air we breathe or the water we drink.

SamuelAnyawu:





Your post made my day sincerely

Proudlyngwa:

If they do that it will no more be profitable for the racketeers as their major gain is from stolen crude, refining it just makes it marketable

blueto:
It may rebate the profit margin, but it will still be lucrative for present and latent stakeholders, and besides, I believe those crudes are stolen in the first place because FG prohibits and becomes unwilling to sell to the “illegal” refineries.

blueto:
It may rebate the profit margin, but it will still be lucrative for present and latent stakeholders, and besides, I believe those crudes are stolen in the first place because FG prohibits and becomes unwilling to sell to the “illegal” refineries.

mrvitalis:
Seriously how can we make progress when we have leadrrs that think like this??

Go to a mechanic village and see how fast people chnage engines... Oh he thinks thats coincident??

First of all they steal the crude.. . And they refine products with low octate number and this causes a lot of damages to the environment, car and population

Its safer to legalise drugs than illegal refineries

mrvitalis:

Crude refineries are not a very lucrative venture.. . For it to be even lucrative u must make use of all the products in the crude.. . Can a local refinery get u that??

They should apply and buy module refineries for say 100 million dollars.. . I dont even see why ewch state cabt own that