Oando, a Nigerian oil firm has said on Monday it was in talks to work with Italian energy company Eni to rehabilitate one of the West African nation’s four refineries.
Nigeria, an OPEC oil producer with refining capacity on paper of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd), imports most of its gasoline needs because its refineries have been shut or running at reduced capacity for years due to neglect and vandalism.
Nigeria’s oil minister, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, said last week Eni would build a new refinery with capacity of 150,000 bpd, using its Agip subsidiary.
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The agreement with Eni also included a repair, operate and maintenance (ROM) agreement for the Port Harcout plant.
Oando said in a public notice on Monday it was in talks to partner with Agip in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt plant, returning its capacity to the original design level of 210,000 bpd from just 30 percent of that now.
Oando said talks were expected to lead to a final agreement by the end of July.
