After many years of lack of investment in private refineries in Nigeria, several local and foreign investors are keen to establish modular refineries in a bid to ramp up the nation’s crude oil refining capacity. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said last week that 33 refinery licenses had been given to private investors but lack of financing had been one of the major challenges facing them.

Of all the private investors that were given the license to establish refineries, only the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited in Rivers State has been able to build a 1,000 barrels-per-day refinery, and is working to increase the capacity to 10,000bpd. Aside from the funding challenges, industry stakeholders have over the years stressed the need for the government to fully deregulate the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry to encourage private investors to come into the refining space.