Nigeria
is set to get another new oil refinery as a government push to end fuel imports
attracts investors to the industry.
Petrolex
Oil & Gas Limited plans to build a $3.6bn plant with a capacity of 250,000
barrels a day, its Chief Executive Officer, Segun Adebutu, said in an interview
with Bloomberg in Lagos. The closely held company is working on the “front-end
engineering design” and will complete construction in 2021, he said.
Nigeria,
Africa’s biggest oil-producing nation, doesn’t have adequate refining capacity
and imports at least 70 percent of its needs. A government pledge to end such
purchases in the next two years by building local capacity has lured investors,
including Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who is constructing a
650,000-barrel-a-day refinery. Meanwhile Saipem SpA and other international
companies are in talks to rehabilitate the country’s three existing plants.
Petrolex,
whose CEO started an oil and fuel trading business about 12 years ago, has also
built a storage tank farm and other mid-stream infrastructure for $330m,
Adebutu said.
The
inauguration of the tank farm and the start of the refinery construction, both
at the same site in Ibefun, Ogun State, is planned for this month.
The
tanks are connected to a pipeline at Mosimi, which will transport products
around the country, according to the CEO, who sees a big market in Nigeria’s
180 million-strong population. Petrolex will finance the refinery project with
loans from local and international lenders, as well as its own revenue, he
said.
The
company also plans a fertilizer plant and lubricants facility as well as a
liquefied petroleum gas plant, Adebutu said.
Petrolex
is targeting listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the next 10 years to
ensure the business outlives its owners and can fund future expansion,
according to Adebutu.
“By
the next five years, we would have achieved a significant amount of our
ambition, then begin strategy talks with the stock exchange,” he added.
