Each Pay N8m Every 2 YearsPRIVATE refineries, whose licences are yet to be renewed, have decried what they view as high cost of licence renewal, which could gulp well over N8million every other year.Consequently, the operators are said to have snubbed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), whose function it is to accept licence renewal fees and other charges. This explains why government has renewed only nine licences, as exclusively reported by The Guardian last Sunday.It was gathered yesterday that most of the operators, who are still grappling with funding issues nine years after they were issued with the Approval to Construct (ATC) or/and Licence to Establish (LTE), are unhappy that the DPR has turned them to 'cash-making venture.'The Guardian also gathered that the cost implication of updating the status of their refinery licences ' even when it is obvious that the odds are against them in a struggling economy ' is already beginning to worry their international partners.'DPR is not doing anything to encourage people who have licences. It is not its fault anyway (it is government policy). There are so many targets to meet here and there. They have the pleasure of collecting renewal fees every two years because they know there are bottlenecks that will prevent the operators from establishing refineries,' revealed a source in one of the private refineries that is yet to renew its licence.Arguing that the issue of licence renewal is secondary to the core of the matter, a management staff in one of the refineries, however, argued that colleague private refineries that have met the so-called licence renewal requirements have nothing on ground to show for it.It was learnt that an operator pays a receipted sum of $50,000 renewal fee and another N500, 000 for each round of renewal. Besides, operators are said to incur other expenses for sundry documentations.At the stage of licence to establish (LTE), each operator is expected to pay the fees every two years until he secures licence to construct (LTC), whereas, according to a source, a licencee is expected to be secured with the sum of $1m.An operator, who expressed the concern that the country might end up not having the desired private refineries, said that, instead of encouraging establishment of refineries, the DPR is only interested in fee collection.Meanwhile, certain operators are said to have ignored DPR's call for renewal while concentrating on fund-raising for their projects. Other operators, who have reportedly lost hope in their aspirations, are said to have completely forgotten about their licences and the need to renew them.Source said that operators who have made reasonable commitment in their respective projects would drag the government to court if their licences are revoked.The Guardian had reported that the operators were having an uphill task meeting the requirement for licence renewal. The challenges, it was gathered, range from funding to difficulty in reaching concrete agreements with potential partners/investors.Checks at the official website of the DPR revealed that only nine of the proposed refineries still have valid licences after the government agency compulsorily and generally revoked them for 'lack of performance' in March 2007.
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