Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said that Nigeria would recommence fuel importation from Niger Republic in a bid to meet up with local energy needs.
Sylva disclosed this in a statement issued by the ministry and said the two countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on petroleum storage and transportation.
He said: “This is a major step forward. The Niger Republic has some excess products which need to be evacuated. Nigeria has the market for these products.
“Therefore, this is going to be a win-win relation for both countries.”
Soraz Refinery in Zinder, Niger, located in 260 kilometres away from Nigerian border, has the capacity to refine 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day. That amount is higher than the Niger’s consumption needs.
The Statement added that “Niger’s total domestic requirement is about 5,000 bpd, thus leaving a huge surplus of about 15,000 bpd, mostly for export.”
The four refineries of Nigeria with a cumulative capacity of processing 445,000 barrels of crude per day had been shut down for rehabilitation.
According to the statement, the MoU was signed by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Melee Kyari, and the Director-General of Niger’s national oil corporation, SONIDEP, Alio Toune.
While talking aboit the development, Kyari said the Nigeria and Niger had established bilateral ties for about five months towards restarting the oil importation deal between them.
He said: “With this development, we hope to have a long-lasting and sustainable commercial framework to having a pipeline from the Soraz Refinery in Zinder (Niger) into the most proximate Nigerian city so that we can develop a depot.”
