Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, is set to resume the importation of petroleum products from one of its northern neighbouring countries, Niger Republic.
The Ministry of Petroleum Resources said in a statement on Thursday that the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding that day for petroleum products transportation and storage.
According to the statement, Niger Republic’s Soraz Refinery in Zinder, some 260km from the Nigerian border, has an installed refining capacity of 20,000 barrels per day.
“Niger’s total domestic requirement is about 5,000bpd, thus leaving a huge surplus of about 15,000 bpd, mostly for export,” it said.
The ministry said the MoU was signed by the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari and the Director-General of SONIDEP, Mr Alio Toune, under the supervision of the two countries’ Ministers of State for Petroleum, Çhief Timipre Sylva and Mr Foumakoye Gado, respectively with the Secretary-General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation, Dr Omar Ibrahim, in attendance.
“This is a major step forward. Niger Republic has some excess products which needs to be evacuated. Nigeria has the market for these products. Therefore, this is going to be a win-win relationship for both countries,” Sylva said.
He explained that the two countries had had long engagements in the last four to five months with a view to restoring the importation of petroleum products (excess production) from Niger into Nigeria.
“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,” Kyari said.
The Nigerian government has approved the extension of rail construction running from Lagos-Kano-Katsina to Marradi, a border town in Niger Republic.
The government has explained that the decision for economic and commercial benefits, in response to criticisms that have trailed the plan.
