By Thompson ABISOLA
Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc on Tuesday said that the company did not plan to go into refinery business in the nearest future.
Seplat Chief Executive Officer, Mr Austin Avuru, said this at the company’s “Facts behind the figures’’ held at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.
Avuru said establishing refinery was not the company’s core business, noting that its core business was to develop natural gas.
“Establishing a refinery is not our core business, our core business is to find already developed produced natural gas and crude oil.
“In this case, a natural gas space to deliver it to the market because we are operating in the local market, we have to process.
“So, it is in the space of natural gas that we will come one step below than the upstream into the midstream. We do not have any immediate plans to go into the refinery business.
“However, if there is any refining investment opportunity close to where we produce crude oil, we will be interested in the refinery to the extent that it will help to provide evacuation to our crude oil solution,’’ Avuru said.
Avuru said the company had been positioned to deliver long-term profitability and capitalise on growth opportunities.
He said the company would continue to manage its debt to ensure maximum return to all stakeholders.
“For the local market, we try to strike a balance between how much cash we hold and how much debt to pay, Avuru said.
The chief executive officer said Escravos would be ready by the end of third quarter, noting that there were little delays here and there.
According to him, by the time we report our Q3 result, we will be specific on the actual date the refinery will be ready for commissioning.
