The Nigerian Content material Improvement and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has sealed a deal to amass 20 per cent fairness in a 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery undertaking being established by African Refinery Group Ltd, in partnership with the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm (NNPC Ltd).
The Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted (NNPC Ltd) additionally holds a 15 per cent fairness funding within the refinery undertaking, having executed a share subscription settlement in 2024.
The share buy settlement for this funding will make NCDMB a key associate within the African Refinery Port Harcourt Restricted (ARPHL), being co-located with Port Harcourt Refining Firm Restricted, operated by the NNPC Ltd, in Alesa Eleme, Rivers State.
The chief secretary of NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe signed the settlement on the Board’s liaison workplace in Abuja, whereas the managing director, African Refinery Port Harcourt Restricted, Tosin Adebajo signed on behalf of the corporate.
The NCDMB boss remarked that the fairness funding is the primary to be sealed below his management.
He confirmed that the Board subjected the proposal by means of rigorous technical, industrial and regulatory critiques and determination gates, according to NCDMB’s Industrial Ventures Funding Coverage.
The Board has additionally instituted a sturdy company governance process that can safeguard its funding and guarantee optimum efficiency of the refinery undertaking, he added.
The deal is a part of the Board’s industrial enterprise programme, which is supported by part 70 (h) of the NOGICD Act, the place NCDMB is charged to “help native contractors and Nigerian corporations to develop their capabilities and capacities” in furtherance of Nigerian content material growth within the oil and fuel business.
The Board’s industrial enterprise investments are additionally geared to catalyse the federal authorities’s strategic insurance policies, present job creation alternatives within the building and operation phases, and add worth to the nation’s hydrocarbon sources.
The shares for the African Refinery Port Harcourt Restricted undertaking had been bought below the Nigerian Content material Intervention Firm LTD/GTE, an organization restricted by assure, and wholly owned by the NCDMB.
The promoters of the undertaking, African Refinery Group had in 2016 gained a aggressive bid to co-locate a crude oil refinery throughout the website of the Port Harcourt Refinery Advanced (PHRC), and it executed an settlement to run and function a 100,000 BPD refinery on 45 hectares of vacant land throughout the battery restrict of the refinery advanced.
The corporate additionally signed a sublease settlement with NNPC in 2019, giving her 45.466 hectares throughout the refinery advanced for a tenure of 64 years.
In line with the funding plan, NCDMB will divest from the refinery on the finish of the seventh yr, counting from the industrial operations date.
A few of NCDMB’s investments in refining of petroleum merchandise embody the Waltersmith 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery situated at Ibigwe, Imo State, Azikel Group’s 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) hydro-skimming modular refinery, at Gbarain, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Duport Midstream’s 2,500 bpd modular refinery at Egbokor, Edo State, and they’re at totally different ranges of operations and growth.
The Board’s funding with Waltersmith modular refinery was executed in 2018, and it served because the proof of idea. It operates optimally and supplies refined petroleum merchandise to its environs, creating lots of of direct and oblique job alternatives.
The undertaking can be a industrial success, because the holding firm, Waltersmith Refinery and Petrochemical Firm Restricted, posted a profit-after-tax of N23.6 billion in April 2024, for the yr 2023, and complete dividend of N4.5 billion, pending last approval on the Annual Common Assembly (AGM).
NCDMB holds 30 per cent share within the firm, and it acquired an interim dividend fee of N450 million out of the N1.5 billion that was declared for the yr ended 2023.
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