By Obafemi Oredein

Special to Dow Jones Newswires

 

IBADAN, Nigeria--Russian energy company Lukoil and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together in upstream operations and the revamping of Nigerian refineries.

The MOU was initialed Thursday by the companies on the sidelines of the two-day Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, which was co-chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and African Union Chairman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, according to statements from the Nigerian president's office.

Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov and Mele Kyari, NNPC's group managing director, signed the MOU, which outlined cooperation in trading, refining and deep offshore exploration of oil in Nigeria.

Nigeria has four refineries with a combined production capacity of 445,000 barrels per day. But they operate well below capacity because of inadequate investment and technology and corruption, compelling the NNPC to import nearly all the country`s petroleum products requirements.

Details of when the MOU will become operational weren't given.

Nigeria is looking to the 650,000 bpd oil refinery being built near Lagos by Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, to source its gasoline. The Dangote refinery is said to be the biggest in Africa and expected to come on stream in 2020.

Nigeria hopes to grow its crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels, and by 2023 boost oil production to 3 million bpd from the current 1.8 million bpd to 2.0 million bpd.

 

Write to barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2019 18:32 ET (22:32 GMT)

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