The Federal Government of Nigeria has issued licences for six modular refineries to commence operations in the country.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Edobor Iyamu, disclosed this in Uyo, on Tuesday, during a ‘Dialogue on Critically Appraising Mechanisms Used To Transfer Benefits of Resource Extraction to the Niger Delta Region’.

Iyamu said the establishment of those refineries was part of deliberate efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Government to grow local content in the region.

He said that in a bid to ensure that Niger Delta Region benefit from the opportunities that accrue from oil exploration, the federal government had kept its word by ensuring that the refineries were not only given licenses but also encouraged to begin production.

He said that the present federal government has put conducive environment for investors to open modular refineries in the country.

The government, according to him has approved zero duties to investors on modular refinery equipment.

His words “Let us not forget that in previous administration, 35 modular licenses were issued nobody did anything about it.

“The licences were issued and people just put the license in their suitcases, why because they were benefiting from the era of petroleum subsidy.

“I was going to say also that because of the policy of this government which is zero duties, it’s has encouraged a lot of investors into the space.”

‘So, today as I said we have six modular refineries, and I have been there myself not talking about things I read or saw from newspapers. I went there physically to inspect the modular refineries,”

The presidential aide on Niger Delta Affairs enumerated that some of the policies set up by the government to encourage local content in the oil and gas sector to include strengthening the local content act. (Independent)