The Federal Government of Nigeria plans to release the names of the four companies which successfully bid to operate modular refineries in the country soon.

According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the refineries when on stream, will be able to refine 650,000 bpd of petrol, assist in creating more than 200,000 jobs as well as stimulate the economy.He said the Dangote Refinery which will begin operation in 2017 will also add 750,000 bpd, to make Nigeria a net exporter of refined petroleum products.

Lai Mohammed noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) might soon become bankrupt as it became the only importer of more than 90% of petroleum products consumed by the country.

NNPC’s expenses was around $550 million and it needed approximately $600m to keep importing fuel, before the current government intervention in the sector.“We did not have enough foreign exchange to open letters of credit for people to import fuel. We must never be pushed to a situation in which we are forced to subsidize fuel prices again in this country, because even if prices of crude oil improves, there are a lot of things we can do with the money to ameliorate the sufferings of our people,” he said.

He added that the new price regime will deter petroleum products hoarding, product diversion and other unpleasant practices in the petroleum industry.“We have no choice but to deregulate the price of petrol at the rate we were going,” he told Sweet Crudes.