India has offered a credit line mechanism to Nigeria to enable the country revamp it’s obsolete oil and gas infrastructure across the country.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Abhay Thakur, said India was ready to provide the credit line mechanisms and expertise to help the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) revamp its massive infrastructure nationwide.
The envoy stated this during a visit to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, in Abuja, where he thanked the management of the corporation for the recent renewal of the crude oil term contracts for three Indian companies and sued for increment in crude oil supply in view of the increasing energy needs of India.
“India is prepared to offer Nigeria and particularly the NNPC a credit line mechanism to help her in the areas of refinery maintenance, construction, security, surveillance. Our expertise in information technology is available as well. We are ready to cooporate with NNPC to boost our bilateral relations,” Thakur said, while also congratulating Kyari on his appointment as the Group Managing Director of NNPC.
Kyari, during the meeting expressed the corporations readiness to continue to supply 10 percent of India’s crude oil demand in the face of competing demand for the product from other countries.
The GMD stated that Nigeria, through the corporation, would continue to support India’s energy security, adding that the recent Memorandum of Understanding in the area of energy between Nigeria and India would be consummated to further strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Kyari noted that India was a very important market adding that NNPC would ensure that the current volume of crude oil supply from Nigeria to India is secured for the collective interest of both countries.
“We are ready to have a robust engagement with the Indian trade team to provide a win-win energy scenario between us. Every trade opportunity that is available will be fully explored,” Kyari said.
He noted that there were lots of untapped investment opportunities in the nation’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and expressed the willingness of NNPC to aggressively improve LPG infrastructure and consumption in the country.