Page 4 - AfrOil Week 24 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

(Photo: Mammoet)
NNPC seeks Afreximbank

help for Dangote move

Nigeria’s state-owned oil company is believed to have approached Afreximbank

about a $2.5bn loan to be used to acquire a minority stake in the Dangote Refinery

NIGERIA’S National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) complex.
is reported to be in talks for a loan to acquire a During negotiations for that loan, the
WHAT: minority stake in the Dangote Refinery, while Cairo-based bank insisted that NNPC hire
Afreximbank is already the facility’s developer has said it will be com- a “professional operations and maintenance
funding NNPC’s project to plete by the end of the year. company” to run the Port Harcourt units and
rehabilitate the Port Har- Local press have quoted sources as saying the company announced soon after it would no
court refining complex. that the company has approached the African longer operate the facility nor its other refineries
Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to bor- at Kaduna and Warri.
WHY: row around $2.5bn to buy a 20% interest in the With this in mind, it may come as some sur-
Dangote Group already facility, which will have a throughput capacity prise that Afreximbank would consider sup-
has a deep relationship of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) when it comes porting NNPC’s involvement in a private sector
with the bank, which has on stream. facility just a few months later. However, the
provided a loan for the Meanwhile, Dangote Group said that con- bank already has a deep relationship with Dan-
refinery.
struction of the refinery is now 79% complete gote, having provided a seven-year, $650mn
WHAT NEXT: and is expected to be finalised in December, at loan in 2018 for the refinery’s development.
The developer says which point commissioning will begin. Speaking in July that year, President and
that construction of the CEO Aliko Dangote said that lenders would
facility will be complete Afreximbank involvement provide around $3.15bn of the roughly $15bn
in December, with Afreximbank is already supporting the Nigerian cost of building the refinery, including $150mn
commissioning beginning government with a $1bn loan to pay for long from the World Bank’s private sector arm.
immediately thereafter. overdue rehabilitation work on the company’s The deal with Afreximbank had been signed
struggling 210,000 bpd Port Harcourt refining a week or so earlier.

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