| Fuel Queues Can Be Avoided |
 Spotting a light-blue shirt, neatly tucked into his trousers, with neither tie nor jacket, James Orife, managing director, Versa-Tech. Nigeria Limited, an oil and gas consultancy outfit, cut the image of a simple and modest person. As he reminisced about Nigeria’s golden era, Orife, a graduate of Geology believes the 40 years he spent working in Nigeria’s oil industry as a pioneer staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was wasted. In this interview with Ademola Ogunlowo, editor, BROAD STREET JOURNAL, and Raymond Mordi, assistant editor, he speaks on a number of issues, including the Niger Delta amnesty programme, fuel scarcity, and the threat by oil majors to starve the country of investment. Excerpts: How do you see the recent amnesty deal between the federal government and the militants? For me, the issue of what happened in the last five years was foreseen way back in 1987 because many of the states in the Niger Delta had a high level of entry into secondary schools and the universities, what they call cut-off point. It’s only one or two states that had low entry points. For the good of the industry, we had advised the oil companies then to reserve 40 per cent of all their employment for people from this catchment area, so that they can speak for the industry and speak for the companies in future. But they said, no. It has taken us about 20 years to learn that lesson, and also at a very great expense. Unfortunately, most of the problems were being caused by my own countrymen in the oil industry, not the expatriates. When you reach a particular point in your career, you should be able to stand firm and tell your employer that this is what I think is best for the country. The issue of lack of gas for the various power projects in the country has been a recurring decimal. Are you satisfied with the strategies being proposed to end gas flaring and thus make the product readily available? When the issue of gas came up about 20 years ago, we submitted a gas policy. After that the African Petroleum, AP, also helped in drafting a gas policy. Must it take us such a long time to see what is good for our country? Have you seen elements of that policy you initiated in the present gas policy of the country? Yes, some of it; like liquefied natural gas, LNG; the fertilizer plant and the West African Gas Pipeline project. But we can do more. Is the West African Gas Pipeline project in any way threatened by the discovery of oil in Ghana? It shouldn’t. Ghana is just starting. It would take a long time before they can reach the level we are now, and I’m not so sure that their type of oil is exactly what we have here. But the gas pipeline has been laid. I’m not sure Ghana would want to take the risk of not fully proving what it has, because the Nigerian gas is something that is sure, established. Ghana is just trying to evaluate its reserves; we may need to wait for the next five years, to see where the industry is headed in Ghana. The oil majors have threatened to starve Nigeria of investment in the next five years, as part of the protest against the Petroleum Industry Bill. Are you bothered by this development? It is an empty threat! If they want to withdraw, it’s a free world. Nigeria is one of the most lucrative places for their business worldwide, and they know it. If they are going to withdraw, their place will be taken overnight. Fuel scarcity has become the rule in Nigeria rather than the exception. How did we get to this embarrassing situation? Don’t forget that it is Nigerians that planned the three refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt. Nigerians participated in the designing of these refineries, and most of them are alive and still in this country. But they were retrenched. Turn around maintenance of the refineries has been a big scandal. Are you saying that it is a deliberate neglect on the part of government that led us to this seemingly intractable situation we have found ourselves today? This is not an intractable situation. This is a country where individual interests seem to override the national interest. Why do you want to see your fellow brother queuing up for fuel at filling stations, when you can avoid it? People’s homes are getting burnt for storing fuel in the house to enable them power their generators and move from place to place. How many refineries do you think can satisfy the demands of Nigerians for petroleum products? We must start by maintaining what we have. I will give you an example. In 1989, the fluid catalytic crank, FCC, of the Warri refinery could not be repaired. It was a team of Nigerian engineers that went and rectified it. But after three months, that team was disbanded and sacked. We need to put our national interest above everything that we do.
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