Oil windfall will be invested on infrastructure – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday the income accruing to the country from rising oil prices in the international market would be spent on infrastructural development.

He made the promise while receiving a delegation from Eni, led by the Chief Upstream Officer, Mr. Antonio Vella.

The President, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said extra funds outside the provision of year 2018 budget “would be deployed to infrastructure projects like roads, rail, and power, for the good of our people, and for the development of the country.”

The 2018 Budget provisions had been predicated on $45 per barrel by the Federal Government and the Senate had adjusted it to $47 per barrel.
However, oil prices increased to $70 per barrel this week.

President Buhari also commended Eni for its upcoming investments in the oil industry, which included rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery and the building of a new one.
“In my first coming, all our refineries were working. Port Harcourt used to refine 60,000 barrels per day and it was later upgraded to 100,000 barrels. Kaduna and Warri were also working optimally, and we used to satisfy the demand of the local market.

“We equally exported 100,000 barrels of refined petrol. Now, no refinery is performing up to 50 per cent. It is a disgraceful thing,” the President said.

Mr. Vella said his organization has presented a technical proposal to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery and also done a feasibility study on a new refinery of up to 150,000 barrels per day capacity.
“Site selection has been completed and 50 new graduates have already arrived in Italy for a training that will last seven months.

“There are other upstream initiatives, and a deep water project, with estimated expenditure of $13 billion,” the Eni official disclosed.