The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has disclosed that the Federal government’s plans to have modular refineries built in Nigeria has begun to gain some traction as equipment for some of them are expected to arrive the country soon.
Speaking through his Senior Technical Adviser on Efficiency, Mr. Johnson Awoyomi, at the 2018 edition of the annual Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum (OLEF) in Abuja, the minister explained that institutional investors had also begun to show interests in investing in the Niger Delta.
Kachikwu had recently also stated through another of his technical advisers, Mr. Rabiu Suleiman, that the government was in talks with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) amongst others to provide contributory finance to investors in modular refineries in the Niger Delta region.
He also stated that the government would as part of incentives to encourage investments in modular refineries, guarantee regular crude oil supply to them, in addition to tax and customs duties waivers that would be given to them.