The Nigerian government has announced that a consortium of investors from South Korea has set up machinery to build four 100,000-barrel capacity refineries in the country.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, disclosed this on Tuesday at a summit organized by the Crude Oil Refinery-owners Association of Nigeria in Lagos.
According to him, the refineries will be built across four locations in Nigeria, noting that the government has maintained an open environment to investors.
“We encourage investors to build limited refineries by providing an open environment. A recent approval was granted to invite to Nigeria a consortium of investors from South Korea, which intends to establish four 100,000 barrels-model refineries in four different locations in Nigeria.”
In a relative development, the Minister told journalists on Tuesday that he is confident that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry would attract $50 billion worth of investment by December end, 2024.
He stressed that his mandate is to open up many oil wells in Nigeria that were drilled and locked.
“The ongoing reform in the oil sector is attracting investors; we have addressed their concerns; and we have regained their confidence. We are expecting about $50 billion worth of investment to come in before the end of the year, and once more investors come in, our oil production will increase.
“There are so many oil wells that were drilled and locked up, and part of my mandate is to open up those wells to boost our oil production,” Lokpobiri added.
This development comes after Dangote Refinery began the distribution of fuel on September 15, 2024, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited as the sole off-taker.