NNPC plans to acquire stakes in six private refineries

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday said it is currently considering equity participation in some private refineries across the country.

It said this was in line with a Federal Government’s policy directive which stipulated the mandatory participation of the corporation in any privately-owned refinery that exceeded 50,000 barrels per day capacity.

The corporation stated that it had identified at least six refinery projects in which it had intensions to seek equity participation.

It said five of them were at the development stage with the Dangote Refinery being the largest of them all.

A statement issued in Abuja by the corporation’s spokesperson, Kennie Obateru, explained that NNPC, as the national oil company of Nigeria primarily had a dual role of providing stewardship for the nation’s hydrocarbon resources.

He said the corporation also had the role of adding value to the country’s resources for the benefit of all Nigerians and other stakeholders.

“These roles enable it to achieve the twin objectives of providing energy security for the country and stimulating the nation’s economic development and growth,” Obateru stated.

He 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.

Obateru 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 said 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.