Nigeria’s foremost petroleum corporation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has revealed plans to acquire equity stakes in six private refineries currently being developed across the country
The corporation made this known on Monday.
It says the position of acquiring stakes in the private refineries is important for the nations energy security.
Making this known via a statement, spokesman for the corporation, Jennie Obateru said that the move was in line with the plans by the Federal Government.
According to him, the Federal Government policy directive stipulates the mandatory participation of the Corporation in any privately-owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity in keeping with its statutory role of safeguarding national energy security.
“In this regard, the Corporation has identified at least six refinery projects in which it intends to seek equity participation, five of them are at the development stage with the Dangote Refinery being the largest of them,” Obateru said.
He further explained that NNPC, being a national oil company, primarily has a dual role of providing stewardship for the nation’s hydrocarbon resources and adding value to the resources for the benefit of all Nigerians and other stakeholders.
He also said that the corporation’s strategic objective is to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth
He further explained that “the oil refining sector is one of such segments where NNPC is revisiting its strategy in order to strengthen domestic refining capacity and guarantee National Energy Security. The new vision is to grow domestic refining capacity, improve petroleum products supply from our local refineries and become a net exporter of petroleum products.”
