Oscarline Onwuemenyi 10 August 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria and Spain will be strengthening their bilateral trade relationship in every spectrum of the oil and gas industry for the benefit of the two countries, according to consensus by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Kachalla Baru, and Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Alfonso Barnuevo.
They made this disclosure at a meeting at the NNPC Towers in Abuja. According to Baru, NNPC, as an integrated oil and gas company, is currently undergoing transformation which includes increasing its refining capacity.
He said the corporation would work closely with the Spanish National Oil Company, REPSOL, to improve the technical capacities of the refineries.
“As you know, we have challenges with our refineries and with REPSOL refining about 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day, we can collaborate on that, going forward,” Baru noted.
“While we are fixing our refineries, we also have the opportunity to bring in more petroleum products into the country to meet our domestic needs,” he added.
He stated that the corporation was partnering well with some Spanish companies in the area of Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, also known as cooking gas.
He stated that the NNPC was also working on the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline Project and would rely on the technical support of some Spanish companies towards addressing the challenges of gas supply.
Earlier, Ambassador Barnuevo said Nigeria and Spain have an established cordial relationship dating back to over three decades.
“This visit is to further strengthen these good ties between our nations and in particular, between NNPC and REPSOL,” Barvueno stated.
According to him, Spain is Nigeria’s second best client in the area of oil and gas. The country currently buys about 4.6 billion Euros worth of oil and gas from Nigeria.
He explained that in the first quarter of 2015, Spain accounted for 9 per cent of the total export from Nigeria.
