SAN FRANCISCO, January 24, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government on Monday told International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in the country that now is the time for them to invest in the building of refineries in Nigeria.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, according to a statement issued by the ministry in Abuja, made this call at a presentation to top executives of ENI in Rome, Italy.
The statement disclosed that at the end of the meeting, ENI signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, for the refurbishment of the Port Harcourt Refinery, building of Phase 2 of the Okpai Power Plant and further investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry worth over several billions of dollars.
Kachikwu called on ENI and other oil majors to move beyond the exploration of crude oil to firmly support the vision of enhancing local production of petroleum products in Nigeria by building refineries in the country.
He disclosed that the major plan of the Federal Government was to end the importation of petroleum products in the long term, stressing that it would be expedient that every IOC invested in building a refinery with a chain of distribution.
According to him, the refineries could be built by the oil majors, and within a short period of time, investment in the venture could be recouped by direct sales model.
Giving historical background of the challenges of the petroleum sector, the minister argued that investment in the refineries was necessary now, more than ever.
He stated that this is due to the fact that Nigeria’s refineries built in the 1970s and 1980s were at present, working at sub-optimal levels and could not sufficiently take care of local needs.
