NNPC set to invite invest for refineries

Agreements on the potential investors for the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company limited are being fine-tuned, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has said.
He disclosed this on Tuesday at a town hall meeting with staff of the corporation in Abuja.
“We are pushing towards the final selection of our financiers and we expect that when that is done, we’ll get the agreements and present them to our board meeting this month to secure its endorsement; and once we have the funding, we will start the rehabilitation of the refineries towards a 90 per cent capacity utilisation per stream day before the end of 2019.
“I am happy to inform you that progress has been made, up to the level of an acceptable detailed engineering design and we are in the process of mobilising some of the refineries already identified for installation in Nigeria,” Baru said.
In October 2017, the Minister of Stste for Petroleum Resources, Ibe kachikwu, said that 26 firms showed interest in the plan to overhaul the nation’s oil refineries, which requires an investment of $2 billion.
According to the GMD, about 35 interests for modular refineries have been declared and the Department of Petroleum Resources has issued licences to about 13.
He said the Kaduna State Government, with the aim of sourcing Nigerian crude for its operations, proposed to co-locate another refinery close to the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company limited.
He added that other Greenfield refineries, which would source their crude from Niger Republic, would be brought on board soon in Kano and Kaduna.
He also said the corporation was bringing new refining capacities on board as there were two groups that had indicated interest to co-locate refineries in Warri and Port Harcourt as well.
To foster job creation, Baru said that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the corporation were collaborating to encourage the establishment of modular refineries in the Niger Delta.
He also said the construction of the Kano and Kaduna refineries would begin this year as the designs for the refineries are ready
He said that the NNPC would provide the required utility services by the companies such as land, water, processed steam and power, stressing that the corporation had agreed in broad terms on areas of collaboration to accelerate the development.
To guarantee energy sufficiency for the country, Baru noted that the Federal Government and the NNPC would continue to encourage private sector initiatives that would bring in competition into the petroleum products supply and distribution network.
The GMD also disclosed that the corporation was also exploring other sources of energy that could substitute Premium Motor Spirit, petrol, in cars and motorcycle.
According to him, the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), to power vehicles, in Benin City, was a right step in the right direction, as over 3,000 vehicles were now CNG-powered in the city, making them more secured and efficient, as gas is a cleaner source of energy.