Nigeria’s national oil organisation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has explained its interest in Dangote Refinery.
Its reason was shared in a statement issued by the corporation’s Group General Manager Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru.
Obateru noted that the interest was solely a continuance of the status quo which states that NNPC should have a “mandatory participation” in privately-owned refineries that produce over 50,000 bpd oil daily.
He said that “with a Federal Government policy directive which 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”.
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Explaining further, Obateru said that the corporation “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.
“These roles enable it to achieve the twin objectives of providing energy security for the country and stimulating the nation’s economic development and growth”.
He added that NNPC’s involvement in privately-owned refineries would ensure that the economy receives a positive impact, guaranteeing national energy security.
Obateru noted that the corporation’s “strategic objective to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth with limited resources requires it to consider strategic partnerships with competent investors in sectors of the oil and gas value chain especially where it currently operates on a sole risk basis.
“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”.
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