Page 10 - AfrOil Week 34 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

NNPC sets up new subsidiary

to oversee greenfield refineries

NIGERIA THE state oil company of Nigeria has this week Mele Kyari added that NGRL’s strategy was
launched a subsidiary to oversee the establish- focused on new refineries, condensate process-
ment and operation of new refineries in the ing and equity acquisition in credible private
company. refineries with the aim of improving energy
Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) security for Nigeria.
appointed the board of Nigerian Greenfield Earlier this month, the country’s Minister
Refinery Ltd (NGRL), with the parent firm’s of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva
managing director, Mele Kyari, challenging said that NNPC had been given the go-ahead to
them to bring an end to the country’s reliance acquire a 20% in the Dangote Refinery project
on refined product imports. for a total of $2.76bn.
Kyari said: “As a business, this is a big oppor- Meanwhile, Kyari had said a month earlier
tunity for us, and this company’s balance sheet that NNPC was seeking to expand its portfolio.
must change positively. Going forward, with the The company has “the responsibility to guar-
Petroleum Industry [Bill], I can tell you that if antee energy security for our country,” he said.
you continue to post negative for three years, He added: “[That’s] why anyone that is going to
you are out. So there is really no excuse.” construct a refinery that is in the excess of 50,000
He added that it was imperative that the bpd, we will talk to them [and] take equity in it,
country takes control of processing its own as long as we have the money to pay for it.” ™
crude. “Our company must grow and we can’t
do well except [when] we are able to process our
production, whether it is the liquid or gas. If we
don’t monetise it then we have done nothing.
This is really a new chapter and we are commit-
ted to making it work,” he said.
Meanwhile, NNPC’s general manager for
the Greenfield Refineries and Project Division
(GRPD) and NGRL’S Managing Director Bege
Talson, said that his division was working with
third-party investors to establish greenfield,
modular and condensate refineries with a com-
bined capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The board also includes representatives of
Nigerian Gas Co. (NGC), NNPC Retail and
Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. (NPDC). NNPC currently controls four large oil refineries (Image: NEH)

Court of Appeal verdict allows NNPC to

wrest control of OML 11 away from Shell

NIGERIA SHELL Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC), a Appeal stated that the Ministry of Petroleum
joint venture led by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Resources had the right to transfer the licence
Shell (UK/Netherlands), has lost control of to Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC),
OML 11, an onshore site in the Niger River Delta the national oil company (NOC).
in southern Nigeria. NNPC hailed the court’s decision, with
SPDC’s licence was revoked last week, when Group Managing Director Mele Kyari, saying:
the Court of Appeal in Abuja overturned a two- “This is a huge victory for the government and
year-old High Court ruling that gave IT the right people of Nigeria, as we now have the impetus to
to renew the operating licence it had obtained responsibly unlock the oil and gas reserves the
for OML 11 in 1989. In its verdict, the Court of block offers for the benefit of all Nigerians.”

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 25•August•2021