….Targets 100% local fabrication of modular refineries

The federal government of Nigeria has revealed that only two out of 50 licensees granted authorisation to operate private refineries across the country in recent time are making what it described as meaningful progress.

Minister of petroleum resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who expressed disappointment at the situation, stated that his ministry in collaboration with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) consequently invited the licensees for a discussion to ascertain the challenges they were facing but failed to disclose their findings.

Kachickwu revealed this while speaking at this year’s Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Lagos recently stated that the federal government of Nigeria was exploring every available opportunity to optimise local refining capacity.
According to him, the government in pursuing this goal first initiated steps towards revamping the nation’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. He explained that the government was not considering concessioning of the refineries nor selling them in whole or part, as doing so would not allow for achievement of optimal value because of the current state of the refineries.

On efforts to source for funds to salvage the situation, Kachikwu said, “We sought externally for resources to finance the rehabilitation of the existing refineries, which was a very tall order, telling someone to invest about $1billion in the refineries rehabilitation with no equity, and wait for incremental volumes of refined products to recoup their investment.”

Speaking on the failure of licensees to deliver, the minister said, “The second dimension was to ascertain what holders of existing licenses to establish refineries have done since they were issued their licenses. Of about 40-50 licenses issued by DPR for the establishment of modular refineries, only two (2) have shown substantial progress.”

According to him ..... Continue reading at source >>> http://naijabizcom.com/2017/09/05/private-refineries-only-2-licensees-making-progress-fg/