The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has denied revoking 32 refinery licenses issued to private companies in Nigeria.

The Head, Public Affairs, DPR, Paul Osu, made the clarification in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.

“We wish to clarify that DPR did not revoke any refinery licence.

“Refinery licenses, like our other regulatory instruments have validity periods for investors to attain certain milestones.

“This implies that after the validity period for the particular milestone, the licence becomes inactive until the company reapplies for revalidation to migrate to another milestone. This does not in any way translate to revocation of licence of the company,” Osu said.

According to him, the DPR in line with the aspirations of the government initiated the refinery revolution programme of the country.

He said it was aimed at boosting local refining capacity by enabling business and creating new opportunities for new investors with the granting of modular and conventional refinery licenses to investors .

Osu said the DPR would continue to provide support for investors in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria using its regulatory instruments of licences, permits and approvals to stimulate the economy and align with governments job creation initiatives.

In a related development, DPR is set to flag-off the oil and gas industry Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre, ADRC, with  the inauguration  of the advisory Council and body of neutrals in Lagos on Thursday 15th April, 2021.

The ADRC is one of the centres in the DPR National oil and gas excellence centre, NOGEC, which was recently launched by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Oil and Gas ADRC will offer arbitration, mediation and conciliation services for the Industry.

The centre will leverage industry technical experts, Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners and resources of the National Data Repository , NDR, to provide fair and balanced resolutions of industry-related disputes from an informed position.

The ADRC is structured to adequately resolve disputes  in a manner consistent with regulatory and commercial interests of the Industry.

This will address suboptimal development of oil and gas assets associated with lingering disputes and the attendant consequences of value erosion in terms of national resource growth,  global competitiveness, investment attractiveness, government take and investor’s profitability.