Why Nigeria is encouraging modular refineries -Oil minister

Nigeria’s plans to focus on modular refineries to improve local capacity, create cost-cutting technologies and reduce capital flight, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu has said.
Kachikwu who said this at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), convocation, noted that one of the major policy thrust of the government was to develop and engage local content in the petroleum sector of the economy.
“PTI’s close collaboration with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, which has been mandated to construct a model modular refinery, using local materials and technology, cannot be overemphasized,” the minister noted.
“When operational, this refinery would be used for experiential training and for teaching purposes. By implication, the institute would once again be involved in the local training and re-training of industry personnel thereby reducing capital flight in conformity with the change mantra of this administration in the area of employing cost-cutting measures in the conduct of government business.”
According to him, the petroleum industry suffered massive setbacks occasioned by the wanton destruction of oil facilities and installations.
The senate has said it plans to amend the Nigerian Local Content Act 2010 to make its applicability broader than the present focus on the oil and gas sector in the overall interest of Nigeria.
Chairman of the senate committee on local content, Senator Solomon Adeola, said “the expansion of the scope of the Act as well as its effective implementation, in areas like construction, manufacturing and other productive sectors increasingly dominated by foreigners will not only create job opportunities for our teeming youths and unemployed graduates but also spur the diversification of the economy.”