Suleiman said: “Today, we have about 43 licensed new refineries, both modular and large sized refineries. We have 250,000 barrels licensed refinery that was given to Petrolex. Another 100,000 barrels license refinery was given to a company in Port Harcourt. There are many other modular refineries being established, from 1000 to 30000 barrels capacity.
“The objective of modular refinery is to ensure that the big capital requirement, which seems to be the major reason why refineries are not established is overcome by building small size refineries.”
According to him, about 10 of the refineries have been issued authority to construct, meaning that they have already been given a licence to establish, and have been certified by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“Two of the refineries are almost ready for commissioning any time soon. One of them in River State is a 10,000- barrel capacity refinery made up of two modules of 5,000 each, and have reached mechanical completion stage,” Suleiman said.
He said the second; a 7,000-barrel capacity modular refinery is located in Kwale, in Delta State, adding that others are spread across the states including Imo, Nassarawa, and Lagos.
“Refineries cannot be too many in Nigeria. We want to ensure that all our crude is not exported. We want crude to be refined in Nigeria so that we can take advantage of the total value chain of crude oil conversion,” Suleiman, who currently chairs Federal Government’s zero gas flaring efforts, said.
Speaking on what government is doing to encourage investors; Suleiman said President Muhammadu Buhari recently granted approval for custom duty waivers to the three modular refineries that are in advanced stages in Rivers, Delta, and Imo states.
“It means that all the equipment that will be brought in after being vetted by the government would be brought in for free without payment of custom duty. That would save them a good amount depending on the size and complexity of the refinery.”