Posted by By KENNY ASHKA, Kaduna on
Oil workers in the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) that was last week sold to Bluestar Oil Services has vowed to resist the handover of the company to the new owners, describing the deal as 'under the table deal"
Oil workers in the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) that was last week sold to Bluestar Oil Services has vowed to resist the handover of the company to the new owners, describing the deal as 'under the table deal"
The oil workers under the auspices of NUPENG and PENGASSAN also said that the sale of the company was a total rip-off as it fell far below the actual value of the plant which they put at over one billion dollars.
'We also want it noted that if the guideline for the privatization and the attendant process are anything to go bye, the KRPC transaction was a charade…
'Finally, based on the glaring lack of transparency in the privatization process and insincerity on the part of the BPE, the sale of KRPC failed to meet the minimum standard set by the government and cannot in any sense of the word be said to have been a transparent exercise".
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna on Thursday, the unions said that Bluestar Oil Services has no prior record in oil business, wondering why the company that did not bid for the company would emerge the preferred bidders.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) sold KRPC to BOS which paid US$160 million (N9 billion), saying that the China National Petroleum Corporation who was the initial sole bidder failed to increase its 102 million dollars bid price.
BOS is jointly owned by Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Mr. Femi Otedola.
'The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) 'is an industrialized complex that comprises a Fuel and Lube process plants with a combined production capacity of One hundred and ten thousand (110,000 bpd) barrels of crude oil per day.
'The fuel plant processes Nigerian crude to bring out products like petrol (PMS), Kerosene (DPK) and diesel oil (AGO) amongst many other bye-products. The Lube plant processes imported heavy duty crude to produce base oils (Lubricants), wax and asphalt (Bitumen).
'The petrochemical plant gets its feed stock from the fuel plant and produces feed liner alkyne benzene for petrochemical industries and the likes. There is also a manufacturing plant that produces drums and tins for packaging.
'The power plant has the capacity to generate fifty-six (56 MW) megawatts of electricity which powers the entire refinery complex on full scream, and the Housing estate (10mw), the balance of which can power Kaduna and neigbouring states, including the FCT.
'At the time the complex was completed excluding the LAB plant, it had gulped N500 million (one billion US dollars) at an exchange rate of two naira to the dollar in 1980. It is also necessary cost of time value, the systematic upgrading of the facilities which include a new demain-plant retubed boilers, rehabilitated turbine generators for the power plant and a revamp of the LAB plants.
'The stock value of KRPC taken after the Bureau of Public Enterprises and prospective investors' valuation as at December 31, 2006 which stood at N7.9 billion.
A partial turnaround maintenance is scheduled to start soon with the arrival of over 90 percent of the materials at a cost of seventy-five million US dollars. This is also not in the contemplation of the bidder. To therefore value and sell KRPC for a misery 160 million dollars (about 9 billion dollars) amount to a rip-off.