Crude oil refiners seek incentives, funds from NMDPRA, CBN

The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN), the umbrella body of indigenous crude oil refiners in Nigeria, yesterday, appealed to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure that all incentives that were given to Dangote Refinery are also extended to other refineries. The association particularly urged the CBN to create crude refinery intervention fund like that of the Agricultural Credit Fund or the Pharmaceutical Fund domiciled in the CBN to drive effective business operations in-country.

CORAN made the appeals when its Board of Trustees’ Chairman, Chief Emmanuel Iheanacho, visited the leadership of the NMDPRA in Abuja, according to a statement by the Secretary of CORAN, Mr Olusegun Ilori. Ilori, however, said the Association had been assured of the government’s economic strategic plan to boost refining in Nigeria from 0.01 per cent to one per cent. According to Ilori, CORAN pleaded with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)/ NMDPRA and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to engage with the licensed modular refineries in order to develop an appropriate commercial model that would guarantee reliable feedstock. It stated that NMDPRA renewal fee of modular refinery licence guidelines be revisited and possibly reduced by way of 50 per cent waiver.

It, however, said that it should be on the companyby- company assessment, and granted to only companies with credible challenges. CORAN suggested for annual monitoring of modular refineries to be carried out by the authorities to ensure compliance with government policies.

The management of NMDPRA led by the Executive Director, Hydrocarbons Processing Plants, Installation and Transportation Infrastructure (HPPITI), Mr Francis Ogaree, and the Executive Director, Economic Regulations and Strategic Planning (ERSP), Dr Zainab Gobir, commended the association for coming and assured that President Muhammadu Buhari, was committed to seeing that more refineries are functional.