Yar’Adua Tasks Petroleum Ministry, NNPC

Clement Idoko, Abuja - 29.03.2008

President Umaru Yar’Adua on Friday directed the Ministry of Petroleum to finetune arrangements with ExxonMobil an oil company, on the proposed gas-to-gasoline plant in Nigeria.

Yar’Adua gave this directive when he received an ExxonMobil delegation, led by Mr. Rex Tillerson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, at State House, Abuja, with a proposal to build to gas plant in the country under a joint-venture arrangement.

To this end, the President also directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to accelerate efforts in ensuring adequate and timely provision of funds and the process of the joint-venture agreements in the petroleum sector.

Yar’Adua commended ExxonMobil for the initiative and cooperation with the NNPC for the growth of the sector, as well as its commitment to the development of the host communities.

Earlier, Mr. Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s Chief Executive Officer, had told the President that his company was capable of building a plant to produce up to 100,000 barrels of gasoline per day from natural gas, with other by-products such as liquefied petroleum gas.

He expressed appreciation to the President for creating the environment which enables private sourcing of funds for the country’s oil sector, and assured that his company had confidence in the Nigerian economy.