Maikanti Baru GMD, NNPC |
About $6bn worth of investment is needed to adequately
rehabilitate and revamp the country’s refineries, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation has said.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru,
disclosed this as he unveiled the investment opportunities in the Nigerian oil
and gas sector to international investors at the ongoing Offshore Technology
Conference taking place in Houston, Texas, United States.
Baru, who was represented by the corporation’s Chief
Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Mr. Saidu Mohammed, said the plan of the
national oil firm was to upgrade the combined capacity of the refineries to
700,000 barrels per day.
The refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna
have a combined nameplate crude oil refining capacity of 445,000bpd, but
currently refine far below that.
Baru was quoted in a statement issued on Wednesday by the
spokesperson for the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, as saying, “For the refineries, our
plan is to rehabilitate and revamp our existing four refineries.
“On successful rehabilitation and revamp, our plan is to upgrade
their combined nameplate capacity from 445,000bpd to 700,000bpd within the next
few years. We will require investments of between $5bn and $6bn.”
Explaining that the NNPC was mindful of the need to
construct new refineries, Baru said the big picture was to transit from a net
crude oil exporter to a net petroleum product exporter as more value and
opportunities abound in the latter.
The GMD noted that the corporation’s presence at the OTC was
not only to look out for potential investors, but to search for partners who
would deploy their cutting-edge technologies to enable the corporation achieve
its goals.
He said the opportunities in Nigeria’s oil sector could be
divided into five distinct areas across the value chain, adding that these were
upstream oil and gas development, gas infrastructure and power plants,
refineries, downstream as well as ventures and new businesses.
He said within the upstream segment, the NNPC planned to
increase its oil reserve base to 40 billion barrels by 2020, adding that based
on its upstream growth plan, the corporation would raise about $13bn and
$16.5bn over the next five years.
Under the gas infrastructure and power plants, he said there
were investment opportunities to the tune of between $9bn and $11bn in the oil and
gas sector.
The NNPC boss noted that in the downstream segment, there
were opportunities in the construction of new crude and product pipelines,
pumping station upgrade, revamp of LPG plants, and construction of new LPG
storage tanks, filling stations and equipment supply.
“The provision of coastal vessels and tugboats and other
ancillary support services are equally areas that will yield high returns on
investment. We will require investments of about $3bn in this area,” Baru
added.
In the ventures and new business segment, the GMD stated
that opportunities existed for the establishment of pipe mills, equipment
leasing (rigs, Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels) and
operations and maintenance services.
According to Baru, oil and gas resources will still be
relevant in the global energy mix for a very long time to come as inferred from
the global demand and supply forecasts.
“The Nigerian petroleum industry remains by far the largest
and most vibrant in sub-Saharan Africa, with lots of potential, especially in
the deep water and untapped gas resources and refining. We invite you all to
come and participate in this process,” the NNPC GMD added.
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