PENGASSAN, NUPENG Threaten Showdown over Refinery Takeover

Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) branch of the Petroleum and Natural Gas, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum Energy and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers, have vowed to resist any attempt at taking over of the Kaduna Refinery over what they described as “a charade transaction on the part of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE). Kaduna refinery was recently sold to BlueStar Oil Services Consortium at the cost of $160 million.
But in a joint press briefing yesterday in Kaduna by PENGASSAN and NUPENG, the transaction was described as lack in transparency, and the unions vowed to resist any takeover attempt until all issues raised are resolved.
“It has become necessary for the two In-house Unions of KRPC to comment on the purported sale of the company, in a deal that was sealed under the table, to a company that has no record of refinery operations and for a price that can only be described as give-away.
“Based on the glaring lack of transparency in the privatisation process and insincerity on the part of BPE, the sale of KRPC fails to meet the minimum standard, set by the government and cannot in any sense of the word said to have been a transparent exercise.
“First, the sole bidder, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), failed to match the undisclosed reserved price for KRPC during the first and second rounds of bidding, suddenly another company that calls itself Bluestar Oil Service Consortium that did not submit any bid, that did not conduct any due diligence on the facility, that is completely alien to the transaction, that has no track record in the refining sector, is now said to have bought 51 per cent shares of KRPC in a process the BPE described as ‘closed-in’ bidding,” the group said.

(C)Reuben Buhari--Thisday