African Petroleum Plc  has said that despite the changes at the NNPC it intends to establish a modern refinery in the country soon. The Chief Operating Officer, AP Plc, Mr Tunde Falasinnu, told news men in Lagos on Monday that AP had done a lot of feasibility studies about the project with the NNPC.Falasinnu said that although the recent changes at the corporation slowed down the programme, the project would soon be on course.

“I believe that is why this action is a bit suppressed for us to see where we are going. So when we now know where we are going, we will now facilitate or fast track the action. “We do not want to deceive the nation that AP wants to build a refinery in collaboration with the NNPC on equity,’’ he said.

He said that AP had given good account of itself in terms of full compliance with government policy on local content policy. Besides, AP operations cut across the entire states of the country with over 500 retail outlets.“We don’t have any expatriate among our staff. So we are there alone as Nigerians and working in Nigeria fully.

The only area you can find foreign intervention in our business is in the area of lubricant production where up till today, we take British Petroleum as our technical adviser,’’ Falasinnu explained.

According to him, the company’s lubricants are a success story in the nation’s market and that the brand had won many awards in the country. We have gone to Ghana, where we are currently doing business and it is equally well accepted. I believe that the way we are even moving in terms of packaging and the promotion that we are planning, we will do better as we progress,” he added.