Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Heineken Lokpobiri, announced that a consortium of South Korean investors will build four refineries, each with a capacity of 100,000 barrels, in different locations across Nigeria.
The minister told the maiden edition of the summit organised by the Crude Oil Refineries Owners Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday that the Nigerian Federal Government is encouraging investors to build refineries by providing an open environment for all.
“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 barrel-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 minister said this would yield results because the Federal Government was open to equity investment in modular refineries and other upcoming refineries as a step to ensure energy security.
“The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has developed and published the domestic crude supply obligation guidelines to ensure transparency in the oil industry and ensure access to feedstock by our local refineries.
“In addition, we prioritise and work with stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the recommendations of the Modular Refinery Committee to give special concession to local refineries’ owners, thereby guaranteeing feedstock to their refineries,” he said.
According to the minister, the government will ensure the deregulation of the downstream sector is 100 percent and put in place a necessary framework that will ease the impact on the poor masses.
He added that the ministry has streamlined access to tax and other exemptions for importing refinery equipment, aiming to make Nigeria self-sufficient in petroleum production and establish it as Africa’s refining hub.
