Saudi Arabia to revamp Nigeria’s refineries, build new plant – FG

The government of Saudi Arabia has expressed readiness to sign a
memorandum of understanding with Nigeria for the revamp of Nigerian
refineries and for the construction of a new one.

This was revealed by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resources. It said based on the proposed MoU, Saudi Arabia had
expressed its intention to also invest in liquified natural gas in
Nigeria, as well as product supply trading in crude and refined
products.

The Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Khalid Al-Falih, said his country was
ready to partner Nigeria in developing the selected infrastructure
in Nigeria’s oil sector.

The FMPR said in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja that the
early draft of the MoU that would solidify the new oil and gas
development partnership between Nigeria and Saudi Africa would be
ready in the first week of May 2019.

The ministry stated that the Saudi minister made this known
during a high level bilateral meeting with Nigeria’s Minister of
State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, in Riyadh.

Al-Falih stated that his team would undertake the task of
drafting an outline of the MoU in consonance with Nigeria and
consequently move through the bureaucratic channels of getting the
requisite approvals and endorsements.

The Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries Governors for the
two countries, Adeeb Al-Aama of Saudi Arabia and Omar Farouk of
Nigeria were nominated to fasttrack the process for its official
endorsements and signing.

“The agreement will in principle open the doors for Nigeria to
potentially benefit from Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco’s recent
aggressive oil sector investments across the globe,” the FMPR
stated.

It added, “Areas of interest will cover existing refinery
revamp, building of a brand new refinery, LNG investments and
product supply trading in crude and refined products. Al-Falih also
reiterated the possibility of establishing an independent refinery
in Nigeria as the country considers Nigeria as the best hub to
reach other African countries.”

Kachikwu expressed expectation that the signing of the MoU would
further cement the cordial relationship between both countries, as
he noted that the two lead persons for the MoU drafting were
seasoned OPEC governors with the highest levels of competence.

This came as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on
Friday described as untrue insinuations that plans were afoot to
relocate its gas marketing subsidiary, Nigerian Gas Marketing
Company Limited, from Warri to Abuja.

The national oil company also stated that the purported plans to
spend N120m as yearly rent and another N294m to relocate NGMC to
Abuja were false and should be discountenanced by members of the
public.

NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu
Ughamadu, said the clarification came in the wake of a misleading
report on the purported relocation and allocation of the huge sums
of money for that purpose as broadcast in the social media by a
group.