Nigeria and China have signed a tentative deal to build three oil refineries in the West African state at a cost of a stunning 23 billion US dollar (128 milliarder DKR), in a move to boost badly needed gasoline supply in Nigeria and to position China for more access to the West African countrys coveted high-quality oil reserves.
Nigeria is one of Africa’s biggest crude oil producers, but now have to import oil because its refineries are badly functioning. The agreement was inked last week between the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
CSCEC is one of the top engineering and construction contractors in China and the sixth largest in the world. But it has nothing to do with China’s petroleum business except some minor oil trades.
The refineries would have a combined capacity of 750.000 barrels a day, well in excess of what Egbogah forecast would be domestic demand of some 450.000 b/d by the time they were finished in a scheduled five years.
That would allow for export and might see the government make good on a long-held pledge to deregulate the downstream sector, where the subsidy paid to fuel importers keeps pump prices low, deters investment in refineries and drained 4 billion dollar from government coffers last year.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
