Saudi Arabia To Overhaul Nigeria’s Refineries, Build New Plant – FG

Saudi Arabia To Overhaul Nigeria’s Refineries, Build New Plant.

The government of Saudi Arabia has expressed readiness to sign a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria for the overhaul of Nigerian refineries and for the construction of a new one.

This was revealed by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources. It said based on the proposed MoU, Saudi Arabia had expressed its intention to also invest in liquified natural gas in Nigeria, as well as product supply trading in crude and refined products.

The FMPR said in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja that the early draft of the MoU that would solidify the new oil and gas development partnership between Nigeria and Saudi Africa would be ready in the first week of May 2019.

Al-Falih stated that his team would undertake the task of drafting an outline of the MoU in consonance with Nigeria and consequently move through the bureaucratic channels of getting the requisite approvals and endorsements.

The Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries Governors for the two countries, Adeeb Al-Aama of Saudi Arabia and Omar Farouk of Nigeria were nominated to fasttrack the process for its official endorsements and signing.

“The agreement will in principle open the doors for Nigeria to potentially benefit from Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco’s recent aggressive oil sector investments across the globe,” the FMPR stated.

Kachikwu expressed expectation that the signing of the MoU would further cement the cordial relationship between both countries, as he noted that the two lead persons for the MoU drafting were seasoned OPEC governors with the highest levels of competence.

The national oil company also stated that the purported plans to spend N120m as yearly rent and another N294m to relocate NGMC to Abuja were false and should be discountenanced by members of the public.