The Federal government is considering an aggressive investment drive aimed at resuscitating the country’s ailing refineries.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed this, assuring that the investment drive that the government has embarked upon will attract over $3 billion investments into refineries in the country.
The disclosure was contained in the 8th podcast he released to the social media on Wednesday with special focus on the “country’s international energy relations and coordination.”
Kachikwu said the Nigerian oil and gas sector is getting investments and supports from the International Oil Companies (IOCs).
The minister added that for the first time, many investments are coming and they are on the increase.
He said: “Some of the support include investments like the Zabazaba where there is a push for the FID and it is $10 billion to $14 billion; Bonga Phase 2, investments of close to $12 billion; Egina, investments of close to $10 billion to $15 billion.
“The investment drive that we are doing to bring money into the refineries are investments that will come to over $3 billion. There are so many other investments for the first time.”
On the effect of Nigeria’s exemption by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in terms of reduction of crude oil production by member countries, Kachikwu said that the concession has stabilized supply and the income to the country.
According to him, “our budget was largely funded and we began to see our reserves, for the first time, grow dramatically from an all-time of 25 billion to as high as 45 billion currently. This is about 20 billion (barrels) movement in terms reserves growth.”
Kachikwu, who attributed the increase in supply and reserve to the relative peace in the Niger Delta, said that the exception from OPEC was a great boost at the same time that the price of crude soared from $25 per barrel to $75 barrel per barrel.
The minister said that: “All these could not have been possible if we didn’t solve the Niger Delta problem and if we didn’t get an exemption from OPEC to continue to produce irrespective of the cost. And, of course, the effect of this was that the prices of crude jumped, it moved from $25 per barrel to about $75 per barrel.”