The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru has disclosed that construction of Greenfield refineries in Kano and Kaduna will commence this year.
Baru made the disclosure while briefing members of staff of the NNPC on the fuel supply situation in the country during a town hall meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, adding that the refineries would source their crude from Niger Republic.
The NNPC boss said the designs for the proposed refineries in Kano and Kaduna were ready, saying their construction would commence this year.
He said the Kaduna State Government was also championing a proposal to co-locate another refinery close to the KRPC with the intent of sourcing Nigerien crude for its operations.
On the existing refineries, Baru said NNPC is inching closer to arriving at the choice of financiers for the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (WRPC) and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited.
The development holds the promise to boosting petroleum products supply and distribution in the Country
Baru further disclosed that agreements on the potential financiers for the refineries were being fine-tuned, following which the endorsement of the NNPC Board would be affected this month.
“We are pushing towards the final selection of our financiers and we expect that when that is done, we’ll get the agreements and present them to our board, meeting this month to secure their endorsement and once we have the funding, we would start the rehabilitation of the refineries towards a 90 per cent capacity utilization per stream day before the end of 2019,” he explained.
He described the procedure for electing the financiers as painstaking, noting, however, that it was necessary to enable a desired closure on the subject.
Baru said the Corporation was also encouraging new refining capacities to come on board, adding that there were two consortia that have indicated interest to co-locate refineries in Warri and Port Harcourt.
He said NNPC would provide whatever utility services the companies might require, such as power, processed steam, water and land, stressing that the corporation has agreed in broad terms on areas of collaboration to fast track the development.
“Am happy to inform you that progress has been made, up to the level of an acceptable detailed engineering design and we are in the process of mobilizing some of the refineries already identified for installation in Nigeria,” Baru said.
The NNPC boss revealed that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Corporation were collaborating to encourage the establishment of modular refineries in the Niger Delta area to encourage job creation.
“So far, about 35 interests for modular refineries have been declared and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has issued licenses to about 13 and I have been invited to the ground breaking ceremony of the first one in Bayelsa next month,” Baru revealed.
He noted that the Federal Government and the NNPC would continue to encourage private sector initiatives that would bring in competition in the petroleum products supply and distribution network so as to guarantee energy sufficiency for the country.