Italian oil firm to build 150,000bpd refinery in Nigeria

An Italian oil company, Eni, has concluded plans to build a refinery in Nigeria with capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Minister Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, who also revealed that the company has applied for a license.

Kachikwu said: “We reached an agreement that Agip will build a brand new refinery of 150,000 barrel capacity, Kachikwu told reporters after meeting Eni executives in Abuja.

“A memorandum of understanding is being prepared,” he said.

According to the Minister, all the various steps so far taken by government, in its attempts to attract foreign investment in the sector, are aimed at reducing Nigeria’s reliance on imported oil products, which takes more than 45 per cent of the country’s foreign currency reserves.

Kachikwu stated that after years of neglect the four refineries in Nigeria can no longer meet the demands of local fuel consumption, as they have all been producing under capacity due to age.

But it is not clear whether the move by the Italian major to go into refinery investment in Nigeria is to be accommodated within the government’s new policy that has revoked the licenses given to some investors, who failed to build refineries that they were licenced for since 2015.

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