Olusola Bello
Nigeria’s refining capacity could hit over one million barrels per day when current efforts at becoming self-sufficient in the downstream oil sector crystallises five years from now in 2024.
This is when the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) 450,000 capacity refineries would have come on stream while the Dangote’s 650,000 barrels refinery would also have been up and running. Additional 200,000 from what the NNPC described as condensate projects are going to be injected into the system.
All these, when put together would push the country’s production capacity for refining products to be around 1.3 million barrels per day.
Mele Kyari, group managing director of NNPC, gave an indication in this direction while answering questions when he visited Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant weekend.
The NNPC boss, who was asked about the current situation with the four refineries, said the NNPC would complement Dangote Refinery to make Nigeria net exporter of petroleum products to the West African market. This, he said, cannot be achieved unless all the stakeholders in both the public and private sectors complement each other.
According to Kyari, NNPC is in the process of establishing two new 200,000bpd Condensate Refineries to boost in-country refining capacity.
He stated that upon completion, the Condensate Refineries, coupled with the 445,000bpd capacity of the existing refineries, being refurbished, and the 650,000bpd Dangote Refinery, would transform Nigeria into a net exporter of petroleum products.
The NNPC boss had said that the nation’s refineries, located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, Would roar to live to refine crude oil at optimum capacity come 2022.
He stated this while visiting the refineries in September this year, saying, “Making the refineries to operate at optimal capacities was a mandate that NNPC as a corporation would leave no stone unturned to actualise. A timely delivery of the asset was a priority.
“We will stick to time; we will deliver this project by 2022. We will commence actual rehabilitation work in January. We will do everything possible between October and December to close out all the necessary conditions for us to deliver on that project. I believe that with the support that we have from the shareholders – government of this country, the entire staff of this company and the contractors, I believe it is doable and we will deliver the project.”
The refineries have been moribund for many years while the country has been depending on importation of refined products with its attendants’ cost on the national economy.
Meanwhile, president of Dangote Group, Alike Dangote, said the driving force behind the establishment of the companies was that he believed in Nigeria, saying there was need to satisfy the Nigerian market, and If we don’t do it nobody would do that for us.
He stated further that the growing population of the country was one of the reasons for putting up the projects, saying, “Our population grows at about 3 percent annually and there is need to meet the supply needs of this population.”
