By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has invited investors to bid for the establishment of new 250,000 barrels per stream day refineries.
This was disclosed by the Group General Manager, Greenfield Refineries and Project Division (GRPD) and Managing Director of the NNPC Greenfield Refinery Limited (NGRL), Mr Bege Talson, at the inauguration of the board of the company in Abuja.
Mr Talson said the investors would be establishing greenfield, modular and condensate refineries with a combined capacity of 250,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd).
The NNPC Greenfield Refinery Limited is a subsidiary of the corporation set up in December 2020 with a mandate to oversee the establishment and operation of new refineries.
The board will see the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, as chairman while also constituting the team are Group Executive Director, Finance & Accounts, Mr Umar Ajiya; Managing Director of the Nigerian Gas Company, NGC, Mr Oluwaseyi Omotowa; Managing Director of NNPC Retail, Mrs Elizabeth Aliyuda.
Others are Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Mr Muhammad Ali-Zarah; and Ms Tolulope Olubommo who will serve as Company Secretary and Legal Adviser.
During the inauguration, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Kyari, charged the board to explore all available options to bring an end to the current challenge of petroleum products importation in the country.
In his remarks, the Alternate Chairman of the Board and NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Refinery and Petrochemicals, Mr Mustapha Yakubu, assured that the operations of the company would be guided by the principles of cost-effectiveness in line with the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He noted that the focus of the project would be profitability.
In his remarks at the ceremony marking the passage of PIA, President Muhammadu Buhari had noted that the failure to pass the bill on time affected the growth of the economy, bringing about stagnation and cited a lack of political will on the part of the past administrations to actualize the needed transformation.
President Buhari said assent of the Petroleum Industry Bill on August 16, 2021, marked the end of decades of uncertainty and under-investment in the petroleum industry.
Modupe Gbadeyanka