Group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum, Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo has held talks with prospective investors in the proposed Lekki Greenfield refinery in Lagos state, which is estimated to cost about six billion dollars.
And according to him, if the Lekki refinery which is being spearheaded by Oando and some other key players in the nation’s oil and gas industry comes on stream, the country would relieved of the agony of perennial fuel scarcity and safe an estimated$10 billion annually.
The proposed Lekki Greenfield refinery will be the first new refinery to be built in Nigeria since 1989 when the Port Harcourt refinery was built.
According to the NNPC boss, the refinery will also be the first that will be integrated with an industrial Hydrocarbon park which will be designed to convert natural gas and refined petroleum products into hydrocarbon derivatives.
Barkindo acknowledged that to invest $5-6 billion in the downstream sector in Nigeria within a three to four years span as sole investor is a daunting task, adding that the sole risk investment are generally strange to the upstream sector.
Ultimately, Nigeria will need to reverse the product flows, create a respectable hub for the regional export trade and engage the world of international product trading in an orderly and profitable manner to the greater benefit of the country.
He disclosed at a meeting with the investors where he also said that preliminary market assessment has revealed that Nigeria can only accommodate only two new 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day refineries in Nigeria in the next seven years.
Discussion about this post