Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 24 -- Nigeria is aiming to pass legislation that will require international oil companies working in the country to refine a percentage of their crude oil production there.
"Everybody producing in the country will be mandated to refine a percentage in Nigeria," said Sola Alabi, group general manager for refinery projects at Nigeria National Petroleum Corp.
Alabi told a refinery conference in Barcelona that the legislation had been under discussion for 2 years and was due for approval soon. He said Nigeria is proposing the move as a way to reduce its dependence on imported fuel.
Nigeria can produce only 445,000 b/d of oil products, while demand is currently around 600,000 b/d, Alabi said. Nigeria has four state-owned refineries and NNPC hopes to build two refineries with 200,000-300,000 b/d of capacity each.
NNPC plans to take a 30-49% stake in each refinery, Alabi said, and it hopes oil majors will take 21-30% stakes, given the proper incentives. One of the fiscal incentives to be offered will be pricing crude at international market levels, Alabi said.
Refining in Nigeria currently is not considered profit-making largely because of the government's price controls on fuels.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
