The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Monday said it is currently considering equity participation in some private refineries across the country.
The NNPC said the decision was in line with the Federal Government’s policy directive, which stipulates the mandatory participation of the corporation in any privately-owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity.
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The corporation stated that it had already identified at least six refinery projects in which it had intensions to seek equity participation. Five of them were said to be at the development stage with Dangote Refinery being the largest of them all.
The NNPC spokesperson, Kennie Obateru explained in a statement issued in Abuja that NNPC as the national oil company of Nigeria primarily had a dual role of providing stewardship for the nation’s hydrocarbon resources.
He stated further that the corporation also had the role of adding value to the country’s resources for the benefit of all Nigerians and other stakeholders.
According to him, these roles enable the corporation to achieve the twin objectives of providing energy security for the country and stimulating the nation’s economic development and growth.
Obateru said, NNPC’s objective to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth with limited resources required it to consider strategic partnerships with competent investors in sectors of the oil and gas value chain especially where it currently operated on a sole risk basis.
He 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 corporation emphasized that the move to seek equity participation in the private refineries would not undercut its commitment to the rehabilitation of its own refineries and strengthen the domestic refining sector.
