There is every possibility that Saudi Arabia may likely build a refinery in Nigeria. This was hinted by Khalid Al-Falih, the kingdom’s minister of ene
There is every possibility that Saudi Arabia may likely build a refinery in Nigeria. This was hinted by Khalid Al-Falih, the kingdom’s minister of energy, industry and mineral resources during a meeting with Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, in Riyadh, capital of Saudi.
Kachikwu had last week met with Al-Falih and other top executives of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company by revenue, with discussions bordering on collaborations between both nations in the oil and gas sector. The Saudi-based energy conglomerate is expanding its downstream operations including refining and petrochemicals production and sees Nigeria as a gateway to other African countries.
Giving insight into the planned investment, Kachikwu said Nigeria was looking towards Saudi Arabia because of the country’s successes in the oil and gas sector. He said Nigeria is already setting up a team to make the plans come to fruition.
“We want to leverage on the huge success of Saudi government in terms of petroleum.
“Last year alone, Saudi Aramco, an equivalent of NNPC made about $200 billion as profit. We have a lot of common ground, historical ties, and religious ties and there’s a need to move further.”
Kachikwu had earlier told Bloomberg that there are “very good prospects” for the federal government to sign deals with Saudi Arabia for investment in the nation’s four refineries.
“We are looking at cooperation along very multi levels. For example, we are asking for some investments into four of our refineries,” he had said.
Although it is one of Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, Nigeria currently imports the bulk of its petrol, with the nation’s four refineries operating far below installed capacity for many years
