The Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, on Thursday, March 10, said that the four refineriesin the country will require between $300 million to $500 million to function effectively.
Kachikwu made this known this during an interactive meeting with the joint House of Representatives Committee on Gas Resources, Petroleum (Downstream and Upstream) and Local Content chaired by Rep Victor Nwokolo over the controversy on the recent unbundling of NNPC to 30 companies.
The Minister acknowledged the communication gap between his office and the National Assembly on the issue of unbundling of the NNPC, adding that the concerns expressed by members were legitimate.
Kachukwu said that the “unbundling was used to qualify the sub-sects” otherwise called ‘Divisions’, and not companies as would have been applicable to the actual unbundling of the Corporation as stipulated in the PIB.
He assured that the restructuring of NNPC will help in achieving 16 to 18 month self-sufficiency of supply of Petroleum products as well as the establishment of the modular type refineries by investors as contained in the recent advert placed by the Corporation.
-bizwatchnigeria