Ubah: let subsidy go

Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, Chairman, Capital Oil Ltd., on Thursday joined other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to call on the Federal Government to urgently remove oil subsidy.

Ubah made the call during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos.

He also urged the government to ensure it built at least 10 modular refineries to complement the existing four in Nigeria.

The Capital Oil boss said that government was still struggling to settle outstanding subsidy claims in the face of the downturn in crude oil price.

“This is the best time to deregulate. Federal Government owes me over N11.9 billion in subsidy arrears since 2012.

“But because there is a Sovereign Debt Notes (SDN) that covers the subsidy debt which is globally honoured and I am confident it will be paid soon.

“Nigerians will not remember the hardship they experienced during fuel scarcity period when banks were forced to shut down, telecommunication companies were also shut down.

“But I practically ensured that all that ended when I disregarded marketers’ directives to shut our stations.

“I have not been importing products since 2011, but I buy products from importers and also get supplies from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) because I have facilities to discharge 30 million litres of fuel per day,’’ he said.

Ubah advised the government to use the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) with a balance of about 500million dollars to invest in the modular refineries.

“This will also reduce pressure on foreign exchange earnings and reduce pressure on those people going to the refineries to load products,’’ he said.

Uba said that he was not into crude oil trading or marketing since he ventured into oil and gas sector.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ubah is also the Chairman of the new “Authority” Newspaper that was launched on Oct. 1