Wednesday, September 05, 2018
5.00PM / NNPC
The Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) in China with Nigerian-Chinese consortia towards developing
sustainable biofuels in the country.
In a ceremony held at the
Nigerian Embassy in Beijing on the sidelines of the ongoing Forum for
China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit Tuesday, two separate MoUs on
the biofuels project development were signed between: NNPC and the
OBAX-COMPLANT Consortium on one hand and NNPC and the CAPEGATE-NANNING
Consortium on the other hand.
Speaking shortly after
signing the dotted lines on behalf of the corporation, NNPC Group
Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said the MoUs signing was aimed
at implementing the Federal Government’s mandate on clean, alternative
and renewable energy programmes, particularly automotive biofuels
production nationwide.
“The aspiration for the
exploitation of renewable fuel resources in Nigeria is to implement our
nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement; part of
which requires the blending of 10% by volume of fuel-ethanol in
gasoline and 20% by volume of biodiesel in automotive gas oil (diesel)
for use in the transportation sector,” Baru stated.
He added that for a
country like Nigeria with a daily consumption of over 65million litres
of automotive fuels, it was easy to see that enormous volumes of
fuel-ethanol and biodiesel would be needed to meet this obligation.
According to the GMD,
meeting and sustaining the target requires strategic investment in more
than ten (10) large biofuels complexes across the country.
Baru, who noted that the
execution of the two MoUs would help develop the first biofuel
production complex in Nigeria, revealed that before the end of the
year, the development of not less than three other complexes would
commence in the country.
He said NNPC was poised
to domesticating the alternative fuels production towards a thriving
commercial Biofuels Industry which would not only create jobs and rural
wealth for the populace but would also complement international efforts
towards curbing global warming.
He described the
renewable energy project as dear to the Muhammadu Buhari
administration, saying that was why, shortly after assuming office as
GMD, he made it one of the cardinal programmes of his corporate vision
of 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFA).
Dr. Baru said as part of
NNPC’s expanded programme on providing renewable energy solutions, the
corporation also plans to power all its retail outlets by means of
Solar PV facilities, as well as develop grid and off-grid solar power
as a business and contribution to the clean fuels initiative of the
Federal Government.
While assuring the two
consortia that Nigeria’s investment climate under President Buhari was
transparent and conducive to willing Investors, Dr. Baru charged them
to commence the implementation of the biofuels projects without any
further delay as preliminary studies on the programme show clear
financial indices that are very encouraging for business growth.
The NNPC biofuels
programme centres around sugarcane-fuel ethanol production;
cassava-fuel ethanol production as well as oil palm-based biodiesel
production.
While OBAX and CAPEGATE
are two Nigerian companies, COMPLANT and NANNING are two reputable
companies incorporated in China.
Speaking on behalf of the
OBAX-COMPLANT Consortium, President of COMPLANT, Mr. Gu Haitao,
expressed delight over the MoU signing, saying he hope it “would
culminate into helping NNPC achieve Nigeria’s renewable energy
aspirations.”
Also responding on behalf
of the CAPEGATE-NANNING Consortium, Chairman of the NANNING Board, Mr.
Qin Chun Lin, said they looked forward to a great partnership with the
NNPC on biofuels production.
Earlier in his remarks,
the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Nigerian Embassy in China who
supervised the MoUs signing, Ambassador Aliyu Bakori, said with over
185 million people, Nigeria remains a huge market for potential
investors.
On her part, the
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission
(NIPC), Mrs. Yewande Sadiku, said the Commission’s doors would always
be open to investors in need of relevant information towards investment
in the country.
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