Emma Ovuakporie
16 March 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA—THE Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Thursday, moved to attract foreign investors to build green field refineries in the country.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Committee Chairman, Dakuku Peterside, said the National Assembly was deeply worried by the fact that about 10 years after the Federal Government granted 20 licences to private investors, no single refinery had been built in the country.
He said: “Nigeria is the only member of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries that imports 85 per cent of its domestic petroleum products needs and now we have reached a crisis level.”
To stem the present situation, Peterside said his committee would be organising the Nigerian Refining Capacity Summit in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on March 28-29, 2012, with over 500 participants expected worldwide.
He said the summit will, among other things, identify issues militating against self-sufficiency in refining of petroleum products, find ways and means to create investment-friendly regulatory and legislative framework, proffer solutions to identified problems and serve as feed stock to the Petroleum Industry Bill.
