Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State
for petroleum resources, has insisted that the federal government will not sell
its refineries.
The minister speaking on Tuesday
at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja said rather than sell,
the aim is to make Nigeria the refinery corridor for the rest of the continent.
He reiterated that rather than
selling off Nigeria’s ailing refineries, the federal government will ramp up
investments such that new refineries will be built across the country.
“The President (Muhammadu Buhari)
has made it clear that he was not going to sell the refineries, because if we
sell them, we are going to be selling them as scraps.
“So the model we came up with is
to bring in private sector investment in the repair and management of the
refineries and get them up to about 90% of capacity.
“That process is almost completed
now, probably in a matter of weeks, we will be announcing the winners.
“We want to get the private
sector to be major investors in building new refineries.
“There are two or three modular
refineries that are ready to come up.
“Agip is working towards final
investment decision (FID) on 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Bayelsa
state, and of course there is the Niger Republic Refinery that we are
discussing- also a 100,000 bpd potential.
“The objective is to make Nigeria
a refinery corridor in Africa.”
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