Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
Minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has launched bidding to find partners to overhaul Nigeria’s ailing refineries, according to a tender published tuesday.
The move is to find solution to previous failure to restart the refineries, which hardly produce any petrol due to decades of mismanagement and widespread graft.
Motorists have been queuing for fuel for months across the country as product importation has declined following the back down by Major Marketers.
Last month, Kachikwu said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was in talks with Chevron, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI to revamp the refineries but would also launch a separate tender in order to attract a maximum number of bids.
NNPC is seeking partners for joint ventures to “fund, rehabilitate and jointly” operate the 210,000-barrel-per-day Port Harcourt refinery, the 110,000-bpd Kaduna refinery and the 125,000-bpd Warri refinery.
Bidding is expected to end on May 30.
Investors would be paid from proceeds from the sale of refined products, the tender said.
The revamp is part of reforms started by President Muhammadu Buhari Kachikwu last year to overhaul NNPC, whose opaque structures have allowed corruption and oil theft to flourish.
In February, Kachikwu told Reuters that NNPC was also in talks with oil companies and banks to raise capital for new drilling and to repay its debt.