The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed plans to acquire equities in six private refineries in the country.
This was contained in a statement issued by the corporation on Monday.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation in the statement said the move was in line with the Federal Government policy which stipulates that the corporation is mandated to participate in any privately-owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity in keeping with its statutory role of safeguarding national energy security.
“In this regard, the Corporation has identified at least six refinery projects in which it intends to seek equity participation, five of them are at the development stage with the Dangote Refinery being the largest of them,” Obateru said.
He noted that NNPC is committed to accounting for the nation’s energy needs as well as providing a vibrant investment platform for stakeholders and the general public.
Speaking further in the statement,Obateru added that NNPC’s strategic objective is to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth with limited resources.
He noted that what it requires it to consider strategic partnerships with competent investors in sectors of the oil and gas value chain especially where it currently operates on a sole risk basis.
Obateru said : “The oil refining sector is one of such segments where NNPC is revisiting its strategy in order to strengthen domestic refining capacity and guarantee National Energy Security.
“The new vision is to grow domestic refining capacity, improve petroleum products supply from our local refineries and become a net exporter of petroleum products.”
The spokesperson however added that the plans by the corporation to secure the stakes doesn’t stop the plans to revamp the efficiency of the refineries in the country while adding that the overall goal was to boost the nation’s refining capacity with a view to becoming a net exporter of petroleum products in the soonest possible time and boosting the nation’s economy.
Nigeria currently has five refineries with four of them owned by the Nigerian Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), while the fifth is owned and operated by Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR).
At the moment,Dangote refinery currently under construction in Lagos is a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) integrated refinery and petrochemical project and is expected to be the Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility when completed in 2021.
