NIGERIA TO SELL REFINERIES NEXT YEAR

Africa's largest oil producer, Nigeria plans to begin privatizing its
four state-owned oil refineries before the end of the first quarter,
Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said.



In an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa in London, Alison-Madueke
said, "We would like to see major infrastructural entities such as
refineries moving out of government hands into the private sector.
Government does not want to be in the business of running major
infrastructure entities and we haven't done a very good job at it over
all these years."



A presidential audit of the facilities last year recommended their
sale due to inadequate government funding and "sub-optimal
performance." The refineries, which have a combined 445,000
barrel-a-day capacity, should be privatized within 18 months,
according to the report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan in
November 2012. Nigeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, produced 1.99 million barrels a day of crude in
October, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

While Nigeria is also Africa's top crude exporter and the most
populous with more than 160 million people, it relies on fuel imports
to meet more than 70 percent of its needs. Its state-owned plants
operate at a fraction of their capacity because of poor maintenance
and aging equipment. Nigeria also exchanges 60,000 barrels a day of
crude for products with Trafigura Beheer BV and a similar amount with
Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage's refinery in Ivory Coast, according
to Nigeria National Petroleum Corp.

"We are right now undergoing a major turnaround maintenance program"
of the refineries, Alison-Madueke said.

Improvements to the two-unit 210,000 barrel-a-day Port Harcourt
refinery, the country's biggest, will be completed by the end of the
year, to be followed by enhancements at the Warri and Kaduna sites in
2014, according to the NNPC. Warri has a daily processing capacity of
125,000 and Kaduna 110,000 barrels.

Towards the end of former President Obasanjo's administration in 2007,
the refineries were sold to companies owned by billionaire Aliko
Dangote and Femi Otedola, but the sale was reversed by the President
Musa Yar'Adua government that took over from Obasanjo. [

*Vanguard]