FG Urges NNPC to Invest in Local Refineries

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to consider investing in local refineries rather than operating government-owned facilities.

Lokpobiri made this statement on Tuesday during the inaugural summit organized by the Crude Oil Refineries Owners Association of Nigeria in Lagos. During his address, he emphasized the Federal Government’s intention to encourage the national oil company to acquire stakes in both new and existing private refineries instead of directly managing them.

It’s worth noting that the NNPC had initially planned to hold a 20% stake in the Dangote refinery but later reduced its equity to 7.2%. Despite spending around $4 billion on the rehabilitation of its state-run refineries, none of these facilities have resumed operations.

Over the past year, NNPC has repeatedly assured Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery would be back in production, yet the situation remains unchanged as of the end of September.

Lokpobiri highlighted that the government has proposed a new operational model for the four government refineries. He mentioned that NNPC recently advertised its intention to engage private sector partners to manage these refineries for better efficiency.

“Our goal is to motivate NNPC to take equity stakes in both upcoming and existing private refineries rather than directly operating them. We also aim to adopt a different approach for managing the four government refineries, as evidenced by the recent advertisement seeking private sector involvement,” Lokpobiri said.