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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has invited qualified investors to bid for Joint Venture agreements to fund, rehabilitate, and jointly operate the national oil company’s three moribund refineries.

According to a public tender published on Tuesday, the NNPC said the objective of the tender is to integrate the technical, operational and financial requirements needed to rehabilitate the refineries for 100 percent capacity utilization.

The three refineries have a combined installed capacity to refine 445,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD). They include: Port Harcourt Refining Company, with 210,000 bpsd; Warri Refining & Petrochemical Company, with 125,000 bpsd; and Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company, with 110,000 bpsd.

The move to partner technical investors in order to revamp the refineries is part of the NNPC’s plan to increase domestic crude oil refining capacity from the current 445,000 bpsd to 695,000 bpsd.

Last month, the Group Managing Director of NNPC and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, said the country needs $500 million to have the refineries back to full capacity and meet the government’s target of ending importation of petrol in the next 18 months. Kachikwu also said there were ongoing discussions with new joint venture partners to co-locate and build new refineries alongside the country’s four existing refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt.

Nigeria has been facing one of the worst fuel crises in recent times mainly because of the country’s reliance on importation of refined petroleum products despite being the largest oil producer in Africa.

NNPC said it would jointly operate the refineries with selected investors for a defined period until their investments are fully recovered. Investors have until May 30th to submit bids.