Indonesian engineering firm PT Intim Perkasa has expressed an interest in building a refinery in Nigeria, the West African country’s state oil company said on Wednesday.
Nigeria has been seeking investment in the sector to reduce reliance on imported oil products that consume a large portion of the OPEC member’s scarce foreign currency reserves.
Its existing, ageing refineries produce hardly any fuel after years of neglect.
A representative of PT Intim Perkasa Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indonesian company, indicated an interest in building a modular refinery in the southern Akwa Ibom state, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in an emailed statement.
It would have a refining capacity of 10,000 barrels per day, said NNPC spokesman Ndu Ughamadu in the statement.
Nigeria currently has a refining capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd).
“We have embarked on an ambitious plan to fast-track programmes to restore our capacity utilization from 30 per cent to a minimum of 90 per cent in the next 24 months,” said Maikanti Baru, NNPC group managing director.
“To do that, we are working on securing financing from third parties, not just funding, but also technical expertise,” he added.
