The Federal Government has announced the approval for a consortium of investors from South Korea to build four 100,000-barrel capacity refineries in various locations in Nigeria.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, stated this at the maiden edition of a summit organised by the Crude Oil Refineries Owners Association of Nigeria in Lagos.
According to him, the Federal Government is encouraging investors to build refineries by providing an open environment for all.
Lokpobiri noted that approval was recently granted to invite the consortium, the name of which he did not mention.
“We encourage investors to build limited refineries by providing an open environment. A recent approval was granted to invite to Nigeria a consortium of investors from South Korea, which intends to establish four 100,000 barrels-model refineries in four different locations in Nigeria.
“We have adopted the public-private partnership model to unlock investment in the midstream and downstream segments of the oil and gas sector, which will lead to the establishment of more modular and mega refineries,” he said.
The current administration is open to equity investment in modular refineries and other forthcoming refineries as a move to secure energy security, the oil minister revealed.
The Minister went on to say that deregulation of the downstream sector will be a hundred percent.
“We will ensure the deregulation of the downstream sector is 100 per cent and put in place a necessary framework that will ease the impact on the poor masses.
The ministry has facilitated easier access to existing tax and other exemptions on refinery equipment importation, which is part of our plan to make Nigeria self-sufficient for petroleum producers and become Africa’s petroleum refining hub,” he added.
What will then become of Nigeria’s four non-functional refineries that has gulped billions of dollars in repairs?
