Blooming Faith Petroleum Limited, a subsidiary of Blooming Faith Global Holdings Limited is said to have concluded plans to partner with the Nigerian government to build and operate a 200, 000 barrels per day capacity (BPD) refinery in the coastal state of Akwa Ibom.
Senior management team of the organization, who are currently in Nigeria to kick-start the procedure for the project confirmed, in a chat with newsmen in Abuja, said that successful meetings were held with the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with a view to forming a strategic relationship for the sole purpose of producing refined products to shore up domestic consumption in Nigeria.
Speaking on the development, chairman of the company, Dr. Robert Yeung said that the company’s interest in building a refinery was fired up by the discovery that Nigeria, a major oil producing nation in the world relies on importation of refined products to attend to its domestic needs.
“We became immediately interested for two basic reasons, firstly as a business entity we have identified the fact that there is a vacuum to be filled, hence there is market for our produce when we get started. This is so because the government of Nigeria will not import what it can access locally as being produced by refineries in-country.
“Secondly because of our confidence in Nigeria as an investors destination of choice in Africa as we know that with a population of almost 200 million people we can never get it wrong with the country and its people.
“We have no interest in exporting refined products as our basic objective is to produce refined petroleum products for the Nigerian market, discussions are currently on-going with the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources and we hope at the end we will get all necessary approvals as we are ready to commence immediately with one hundred percent funding capability.”
Also speaking on the issue, Mr. John Erigwe, the company’s International Operations Director said that the company has the financial capability and technical expertise to see the project through.
According to him, the company is deeply interested and highly committed to investing in Nigeria’s economy and it is for this reason “we sought the audience of the leadership of the NNPC under the Honourable Minister of ststae for Petroleum resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to meet and present our ideas and proposals to the corporation.
“We are fully interested in doing business in Nigeria and we don’t require any road-show to put our funds in the Nigerian economy as we have done our feasibility studies and risk analysis to conclude that Nigeria inspite of bureaucratic bottle necks is still an investor’s choice destination.
“Our refinery if approved and completed would be second in size and output capacity in Nigeria second only to the ongoing Dangote refinery which we gathered would commence operations in 2019.
“Nigeria surely needs these types of investments to boost local production of refined products as it is unheard- of to have a particular commodity in commercial quantity and be unable to maximize its usage for the benefit of its people, and we as investors have seen considerable seriousness for direct foreign investment from the current administration and that is a major part of our motivation.” He said.
“The company hopes to site its refinery in Akwa-Ibom state, and also announced its desire to ensure that the refinery is built to a world-class standard upon completion, one that would be a reference point in the refining business in Africa immediately it kicks off.” [myad]
