INVESTORS WILL HELP BOOST NIGERIA'S REFINERIES PERFORMANCE - KACHIKWU

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, says Nigeria has no plan to sell any of its refineries despite its underperformance.

Speaking during an official visit to the Port Harcourt refinery in Alesa Eleme in Rivers State, the minister said:

“We are not inviting foreign partners to take over the refineries, we do not have the funds.

“Even now that they are working, they are probably working at about 60 per cent or below capacity (and) we need to upgrade these refineries, get them to a level where they are doing at least 90 per cent performance (and) it requires money,” he said.

Kachikwu explained that the call for foreign partners was to get technical support to upgrade Nigeria’s capacity to achieve consumer quota and export in the course of time.

“What we’ve now done is to find a very creative way (for which we should be praised actually) of bringing in investors who will come in and work with our team here who have the skills, to reactivate and upgrade facilities in these refineries and to help us provide technical support,” he said.

Despite being Africa’s largest crude exporter, Nigeria imports almost all of its gasoline.

Kachikwu said Nigeria was in talks with oil majors lilChevron, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI to get help revamping the ailing refineries.

The country has also issued bids in search of willing partners to held revamp the refineries.

The Petroleum Minister also told reporters that the Federal Government had also changed the refining modules such that refineries pay for their crude with the payment credited to the Federation Account.

He commissioned the crude line into the tank of the refining company, disclosing that the target was to get the country’s refineries up and running at full capacity.

Share this

Anonymous