Nigeria, Spain Fortify Ties On Oil & Gas

Nigeria and Spain are to make stronger their bilateral trade relationship in oil and gas for the benefit of the two countries.

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Kachalla Baru, disclosed on Thursday in Abuja while receiving the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Alfonso Barnuevo to the NNPC Towers.

Baru noted that NNPC as an integrated oil and gas company is currently undergoing transformation which includes increasing the Corporation’s refining capacity.

He added that the corporation would work closely with the Spanish National Oil Company, REPSOL, to improve the technical capacities of the refineries.

Baru said, “As you know, we have challenges with our refineries and with REPSOL refining about 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day, we can collaborate on that, going forward.”

“While we are fixing our refineries, we also have the opportunity to bring in more petroleum products into the country to meet our domestic needs,” he added.

He stated that the Corporation was partnering well with some Spanish companies in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) also known as cooking gas.

The GMD also expressed NNPC’s desire to boost safer energy utilisation in the country through promoting LPG consumption.

He stated that the NNPC was also working on the Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline Project and would rely on the technical support of some Spanish companies towards addressing the challenges of gas supply.

Earlier, Ambassador Barnuevo said Nigeria and Spain had an established cordial relationship dating back to over three decades.

“This visit is to further strengthen these good ties between our nations and in particular, between NNPC and REPSOL,” Ambassador Barvueno stated.

According to him, Spain is Nigeria’s 2nd best client in the area of oil and gas. The country currently buys about 4.6billion Euros worth of oil and gas from Nigeria.

He explained that in the first Quarter of 2015, Spain represented 9 percent of the total export from Nigeria.

“Therefore, NNPC and REPSOL will benefit tremendously from sustaining this collaboration,’ the Ambassador concluded.