DPR denies revoking 32 refinery licences, says Dangote refinery 80% complete
By Ayo Fadimu
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has denied revoking 32 refinery licenses issued to private companies in Nigeria.
The Head, Public Affairs, DPR, Paul Osu made the clarification in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.
“We wish to clarify that DPR did not revoke any refinery licence.
“Refinery licenses, like our other regulatory instruments have validity periods for investors to attain certain milestones.
“This implies that after the validity period for the particular milestone, the licence becomes inactive until the company reapplies for revalidation to migrate to another milestone.
“This does not in any way translate to revocation of licence of the company,” Osu said.
According to him, the DPR in line with the aspirations of the government initiated the refinery revolution programme of the country.
He said it was aimed at boosting local refining capacity by enabling business and creating new opportunities for new investors with the granting of modular and conventional refinery licenses to investors .
Osu said the DPR would continue to provide support for investors in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria using its regulatory instruments of licences, permits and approvals to stimulate the economy and align with governments job creation initiatives
The clarification is coming after an online medium had listed 32 refineries licences had become invalid and had been revoked by DPR.
The refinery projects whose licences were erroneously declared invalid by the online medium include BUA Refinery & Petrochemicals (Akwa Ibom); Dee Jones (Cross River); Energia Limited (Delta State); Southfield Petrochemical & Refinery Ltd (Edo); Starex Petroleum Refinery (Onne Oil & Gas Free Trade Zone); RG Shinjin Petrochemicals (Delta); Don Mac (Edo), and Platinum Hydrocarbon Resources (Delta).
Others are Mondonat Nigeria Ltd (Delta); Ikwe-Onna Refinery (Akwa Ibom); Shepha Petroleum & Petrochemicals Company (Delta); JIL-Amber (Port Harcourt Refinery); Gazingstock Petroleum Company (Delta); Petrolex Oil & Gas Limited (Ogun); Eghudu Refinery (Edo); Ibafon Refinery FZE (Calabar FTZ, Cross River); and Kainji Resources (Imo).
Among them are Eko Petrochem & Refining Company (Lagos); Hi Rev Oil (Akwa Ibom); Epic Refinery & Petrochemical Industries (Bayelsa); Masters Energy Oil & Gas (Rivers); Cross Country Oil & Gas (Imo); Grifon Energy (Ondo); Sifax Oil & Gas Company (Lagos); and Capital Oil & Gas Industries (Lagos);
Others are All Grace Energy (Rivers); Green Energy International (Rivers); Fresh Energy Limited (Bayelsa); Chyzob Oil & Gas (Abia); Aiteo Energy Resources Limited (Delta); Associated Worldwide Company (Akwa Ibom); and Amakpe International Refinery (Akwa Ibom).
In the meantime, the agency’s updated list showed that the construction of four modular refineries, with a total capacity of 23,000bpsd, had been completed.
The refineries are Waltersmith Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited in Imo State, OPAC Refineries in Delta, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (Train 3) in Rivers, and Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited in Edo.
The biggest refinery project, which is being built by Dangote Oil Refinery Company in Lagos, is more than 80.3 per cent completed, according to the DPR.
