Nigeria Seals Pact With Niger on Petroleum Products Transportation

The Federal Government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Niger for petroleum products transportation and storage.

The Ministry of Petroleum Resources confirmed this in a statement, signed by Special Adviser Media to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Garba Deen Muhammad.

He said that following bilateral agreements between Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, talks have been on-going between the two countries for over four months through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Niger Republic’s National Oil Company, Societe Nigerienne De Petrole, on petroleum products transportation and storage.

The statement said, “Niger Republic’s Soraz Refinery in Zinder, some 260km from the Nigerian border, has an installed refining capacity of 20,000 barrels per day and Niger’s total domestic requirement is about 5,000bpd, thus leaving a huge surplus of about 15,000 bpd, mostly for export.”

According to the statement, the MoU was signed by the GMD NNPC, Mele Kyari and the Director General of SONIDEP, Alio Toune under the supervision of the two countries’ Ministers of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and Foumakoye Gado, respectively with the Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation, Omar Farouk Ibrahim in attendance.

The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva in his remark expressed delight over the development, describing it as another huge step in developing trade relations between both countries.

“This is a major step forward Niger Republic has some excess products which needs to be evacuated. Nigeria has the market for these products. Therefore, this is going to be a win-win relation for both countries.”, he said.