Nigeria is to resume the importation of petroleum products from neighbouring Niger Republic, Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources has said.
The ministry said in a statement in Abuja that the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday for petroleum products transportation and storage.
The statement explained that Niger Republic’s Soraz Refinery in Zinder, about 260km from the Nigerian border, has an installed refining capacity of 20,000 barrels per day and that Niger’s total domestic requirement is about 5,000bpd, leaving a huge surplus of about 15,000 bpd, mostly for export.
The Nigerian ministry officials said that the MoU was signed by the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, 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 relation for both countries,” local media reports on Friday quoted Sylva as saying.
GIK/APA