More foreign investors show interest in 300bpd Green Refinery

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Three companies from China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have joined the league of foreign investors in frame for the 300,000 barrels per day Lekki Green field refinery being promoted by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).   

Two of the firms are from China and one from UAE bringing the number of foreign interest in the project to three and local investors two. Earlier, Oando and African Petroleum and Mittal, an Indian company, had expressed interest in the project. The Lagos State Government has agreed in principle to allocate 1,500 hectares of land within the oil and gas area of the Lekki Free Zone for the project. 

An industry source told BusinessDay that the major attraction of the investors for Lekki ahead of another location in Rivers State which was also in contention is the easy access to coastal locations and the proximity to a large market for refined petroleum products. 

The source said that the NNPC would want the investors to be involved in the construction of the plants unlike the past where the existing refineries were built by different companies for the NNPC to run. The relative security in Lagos and its large and strategic coastline also tilted the choice in its favour. 

The NNPC is also promoting three other refineries. Two of these would be crude oil refineries to be located in the South West and the Niger Delta respectively, while the third, a gas refinery, is to be situated in the North Central Zone and would leverage on the proposed Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline and produce gas derivatives such as fertilizers and petrochemicals.

More foreign investors show interest in 300bpd Green Refinery

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