The Federal Government has indicated that it may sell off its publicly-owned refineries in a move aimed at attracting investors, boosting competition, and improving efficiency in the downstream oil sector.
The disclosure was made by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, during an interview with Bloomberg TV anchor, Joumanna Bercetche on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) on Tuesday.
“It’s one of the options that you have to consider if you find the right technical partner with the right capital,” Verheijen said.
The plants have largely been sustained by subsidies, “but now that we’ve removed the subsidies, we’ve removed the distortions in that market,” she said.
“We have improved our investment climate in Nigeria. In 2024 we were considered a top three investment destination amongst 14 countries, a lot of those investments are going into oil and gas and increasingly that would enable us power our industries, homes, businesses and make our export more competitive.
Speaking on the scope of investments she said “We have catalyzed about $8 billion so far in 18 months. all of those have come from big international investors in our market.
“The next $20billion is also going to come from those investors and some of our independent investors that we have created as a result of our reforms as well.” She concluded.
