info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Image from Internet
A foreign oil company plans to build a crude refinery in Nigeria with capacity of 150,000 barrels a day through its Agip subsidiary, the country's oil minister said on Tuesday. Nigeria has been seeking investment in the sector to reduce reliance on imported oil products that consume a large portion of the nation's scarce foreign currency reserves. After years of neglect its existing, ageing refineries produce hardly any fuel.
"We reached an agreement that Agip will build a brand new refinery of 150,000 barrel capacity, Emmanuel Kadiru told reporters after meeting Eni executives in Abuja.A memorandum of understanding is being prepared, he added.The foreign company executives declined to talk to reporters at the event, but in January the company said that it would "intensify" oil and gas exploration in Nigeria and help to revamp the Port Harcourt oil refinery.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has announced that Nigeria will commence refining crude around 2019.The minister revealed this while speaking with state house correspondents shortly after meeting with Acting President and top management of Agip Oil Company in the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.According to Kadiru , foreign oil company of its Nigerian subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC is preparing a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government to build a $16bn refinery in Portharcourt, Rivers state. Kadiru expressed that the investment when completed, will reduce reliance on imported oil products and also meet the needs of Nigeria’s local consumption around 2019.
Kadiru said “The effect of this is that oil companies operating in Nigeria will begin to migrate from only exporting crude and begin to look on how to start refining these crude so that we will be able to meet our local consumption.“With this new refinery and along with other things we are going to do with the refinery in Port Harcourt, it gives us hope in our quest to try and increase our local capacity to produce every refined product we need in the country and to meet the time line of 2019. We are now going ahead to work out the modality with Agip”.
Kadiru also revealed that in the area of power, “Agip has second largest plant which will be on stream by 2020”.He added“This is to make sure they are not only just taking away crude but making other local investment. Total investment in area of power and the refinery from Agip is in excess of $15 billion,”.
