Private Investors to Finance NNPC Rehabilitation of Downstream Assets

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) during the weekend said a group of private investors would finance the proposed rehabilitation and replacement of its aging downstream assets, especially petroleum pipelines, across the nation.

In a statement released in Abuja, the Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, said some of the assets to be replaced were as old as 40 years and long overdue for replacement.

The managing director explained that the investors to be engaged would be doing the financing under the Finance, Build, Operate and Transfer, BOT, Model, adding that the model became imperative given the state of the nation’s downstream infrastructure.

He said: “Some of these assets are as old as 40 years and they are due for replacement; and when you want to do a replacement of this scale, you do need a lot of resources.

“And we know that we require these assets so we decided that we bring in private partners who will fund these pipelines, they will construct it, they will operate it with us and then ultimately they will fully recover their investment from the tariff which we will pay for using these pipelines. And as soon as they recover their cost and their margin, they will hand over these assets back to us.”

According to the NNPC boss, no fewer than 78 firms have already submitted virtual bids indicating their willingness to undertake the rehabilitation of the downstream pipelines, associated depots and terminal infrastructure of the NNPC through the financing model.

He added that the final partners would be selected by the end of the first quarter of 2021.