Foreign investors have indicated interest in financing the construction of the estimated $8billion refinery being proposed by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), it was learnt yesterday.
But the major snag, which the association wants the Federal Government to remove before kick-starting the project, is unnecessary bureaucracy and insecurity in the country.
IPMAN’s Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Dankingari, who made this known to The Nation in Abuja, said the association has already secured a land for the project in Kogi State .
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“The way we (IPMAN) want the Federal Government to assist us in building the refinery is not money, or cash. All that we want the government to do for us is to give us a proper relationship in such a way that we can call our foreign investors. Our foreign investors are ready to sponsor this and construct this refinery for us.
“Just what we need is the security of the country, then the relationship between the government and our partners. That is just what we need from the government.“
He said the proposed modular refinery which can refine between 100 to 10, 000 barrels of crude per day could also provide employment for over 1,000 Nigerians.
The Vice Chairman said upon the completion of the construction, the refinery will source crude oil from PortHarcourt and Calabar.
On the fuel scarcity in the country, he urged the Federal Government to repair the four national refineries, or construct some modular refineries within them since they all have large expanse of land.
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Dankingari said : “Since we have four refineries, the government should intervene to repair those refineries or they should do modular refineries inside the refineries if they find out that repairing the old ones will gulp huge amount of money without success, a modular refinery can be constructed inside refineries like ours that have large hectares of land.”
He said the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) already in its last week meeting, has pledged its support for private investors to freely participate in the construction and ownership of refineries.
The DPR told us that it will allow us to participate freely and get license and support from the government as quickly as possible, he said.
