Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), yesterday raised alarm over imminent collapse of the textile industry, saying about 30 textile industries will be closed down and 30,000 jobs lost by next week, if High Pour Fuel Oil (HPFO), commonly called black oil were not made available by the Federal Government.
Speaking with newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Vice President, MAN, Senator Walid Jibril, lamented that the little amount of black oil produced by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were exported at the detriment of local textile industries.
He said refineries producing the black oil, namely Kaduna Refineries and Petrochemical Company and Port Harcourt Refineries Company, have only recently been sold to private core investors who are yet to resume operations.
“The remaining 30 textile industries in Nigeria will close down by next week because of lack of black oil. Government is handing them off and the new buyers are doing nothing there, so there is a real problem already. The little HPFO produced is exported at the detriment of local industries,” Jibril said.
Desecribing black oil as that which is used in the textile industry to generate steam, he said, “if there is no steam, the engines will not start at all. It is a bye product of fuel. The industries are left with no alternative than to close.” Since the black oil was now scarce, its price, which was fixed at N25.40 per litre has jumped to about N60 per litre in Kaduna and N75 per litre in Kano.
According to him, if there is import, we want government to subsidise the products. “If it costs N75 per litre in Kano, then its not fair, because HPFO, which is used to make low pour fuel oil
(LPFO) is a bi-product of crude oil which is gotten after petrol and others have been extracted. Now, if petrol, which is one of the main products, is sold at N70, why should LPFO, a bi-product be sold at N75? They should stop total exportation of HPFO, so as to allow for blending and supply to local users,” he said.