The Nigerian government and her neighbouring Niger Republic counterpart have reached an agreement to jointly construct a refinery as part of efforts to solve the sectors challenge.
The agreement was reached Wednesday when Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu met with the President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou and the country’s Energy Minister, Mr. Foumakoye Gado.
The Refinery is expected to be constructed in a border town between Nigeria and Niger, with crude pipelines to be constructed from Niger to the refinery.
Announcing the development on his official Twitter handle @ibekachikwu, the minister said, “In line with the commitment to collaboratively work across the region to ensure definitive solutions to sector challenges, I thank the President of Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou and my Energy counterpart, Foumakoye Gado for acceding to this mutually beneficial agreement.
“This will be expressed through the construction of a refinery in the border town between the Republic of Niger and Katsina State, Nigeria, and a crude oil pipeline from the Republic of Niger to the new refinery. Bilateral and technical agreements will be signed in coming days.”
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer has four refineries which are presently in a dilapidated state. The country exports it’s crude and imports refined products.
Frequent attacks on its pipeline networks has forced the country to resort to transporting products with trucks across the country, while crude pipelines are also frequently sabotaged and oil stolen in a large scale.
Subscribe To Newsletter
