TheCable

Nigerian petroleum producers will be refining 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day locally from 2020, members of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group have projected.

The group, which met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday, said sizeable investments have gone into building refineries by its members who are all indigenous companies involved natural gas and crude oil production.

They currently produce over 200,000 barrels of oil and over 900 million cubics of gas production per day.

A member of the group, Austin Avuru, told the media that oil and gas production target was one of the issues they discussed with the president.

“The issue of private refineries was one of the points we raised with the president,” Avuru, who is the CEO of Seplat Petroleum said.

“We think that by 2020, domestic refining capacity should not be less than one million barrel of oil per day in domestic refining.

“We actually put 1.2 million barrels domestic refining capacity per day and that falls on our doorstep as indigenous operators.”

He said constructions had already started, with some of the firms on board with small-size refineries in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

According to him, “If you watch the way the oil and gas sector is evolving, increasingly the key segments of the oil and gas industry, the onshore segment and the swamp, oil is now falling into the hands of Nigerian independents producers.

“This is why in the past five years, we have made so much investment over $9 billion in just acquiring these assets and over $1 billion each year in work programme investment and this is growing.

“So, we are looking at the segment of the industry that is going to become a very critical partner to government particularly in the delivery of natural gas and other products into the domestic economy.

“We called for the meeting because we realise we needed to engage with Mr. President because we identify with all his policy direction. We realised we are very critical partners that he needed to know about and to engage with very early in the administration of the president.

“So, we called for the meeting and he obliged us. Mr. President was very receptive and promised that all the help and support we need to succeed as indigenous producers, we will get them.

“Specific requests will go to the GMD NNPC when we engage him. We would now follow it up with more specifics when we meet with the GMD NNPC.”

Buhari assured the indigenous companies of full support, directing the management of NNPC to work more with them.

“We have the manpower for a more effective participation in our oil industry. We will give you all possible encouragement. You certainly won’t be ignored under my leadership,” he said.