Nigeria has finalised plans to stop the importation of petroleum products into the country by 2023. Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday.
While speaking at the 49th Session of the State House Briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Kyari said that the country would stop importing petroleum products next year.
Kyari spoke at the weekly briefing hosted by the Presidential Communication Team, noting that the NNPC had right to 20 per cent of production from the Dangote refinery.
He explained that the Dangote refinery which would commence operation next year would augment the output from state-owned refineries to meet Nigeria’s demands for petroleum products.
“The NNPC owns 20% equity in the Dangote refinery and not only that, and we’re very proud of this. We’re not only owning 20% equity, we have the first right of refusal to supply crude oil to that plant. But we saw this energy transition challenge coming we knew at that time will come when you will look for people who will buy your crude oil you will not find and that means that we have locked down ability to sell crude oil for 330,000 barrels minimum by right for the next 20 years.
“Also, by right also we have access to 20% of the production from that plant. That means that whatever it does, you know we have a right to take 20% of that production as part of our equity and this refinery will come on stream by latest by the mid of next year.
“Projection is first quarter, but we think that it can come up latest by the middle of next year. If it does, this refinery alone, because it has a 650,000 per barrel capacity and different technology, means that it can crack the crude in a manner that you can have more gasoline than a typical refinery.
“That means that the refinery has the ability to produce up to 50 million litres of PMS. So, the combination of that and our own ability to bring back our refinery will completely eliminate any potential petroleum product into this country next year. You will not see any importation to into this country next year. This is very practical. This is possible,” Kyari said.
“As a matter of fact, when we’re done with our refineries and the Dangote Refinery, very many small initiatives that we are doing; small, modular, condenser refineries that we’re building, if that happens, and we are very optimistic it will happen, you will see that this country will now be a net exporter, we hope of export of petroleum products, not just to the west African sub-region, but to the rest of the world.
“This will happen, and the flow of supply will change. By the middle of next year, it will change. So, you will have no need for the importation of petroleum products into this country by the middle of next year,” Kyari added.