OpeOluwani Akintayo
27 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — President Muhammadu Buhari has said excess revenue as a result of rising oil prices will be spent on building infrastructure across the country.
In a statement signed by his Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity on Friday, President Buhari while receiving delegate from Eni, led by the Chief Upstream Officer, Antonio Vella, said extra funds outside the provision of the year 2018 budget “will be deployed to infrastructure projects like roads, rail, and power, for the good of our people, and for the development of the country.”
The 2018 budget initially based on $45 per barrel by the Executive, and the Senate was later increased to $47 per barrel.
Oil prices hit $71 per barrel on Thursday.
President Buhari then disclosed the oil firm’s intention to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery, and the building of a new one.
“In my first coming, all our refineries were working. Port Harcourt used to refine 60,000 barrels per day, and it was later upgraded to 100,000 barrels. Kaduna and Warri were also working optimally, and we used to satisfy the demand of the local market. We equally exported 100,000 barrels of refined petrol. Now, no refinery is performing up to 50%. It is a disgraceful thing,” the President said.
Speaking on behalf of Eni, Antonio Vella, hinted that the firm already has a technical proposal with the NNPC to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery, including a feasibility study on a new refinery of up to 150,000 barrels per day capacity.
“Site selection has been completed, and 50 new graduates have already arrived in Italy for a training that will last seven months.
“There are other upstream initiatives, and a deep water project, with an estimated expenditure of $13 billion,” Vella said.
Eni also disclosed plans to spend $750 million to double power generation capacity from its plant in Delta State from its present 500 MW to 1,000 MW.
