Auwalu Sarki, the director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on the back of various reforms currently being embarked on by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria has the capacity of exceeding local consumption of premium motor spirit within few years.
He said issues and concerns of huge subsidy payment are gradually being addressed by the federal government through meeting local sufficiency through mega and modular refineries investments in various parts of the country.
He disclosed that the border closure currently being enforced by the federal government has given a near-perfect picture of the local consumption of petroleum products in the country.
“The government is looking at ways of making energy affordable to each and every Nigerian which makes the downstream critical in the success of any administration.
He states further that the ongoing effort of the DPR to create the enabling environment of creating deep import can be seen with the establishment of mega and modular refineries to ensure local consumption sufficiency.
“The domestic refining capacity we believe in the next two years will exceed the requirement of the consumption of the population.
It is on record that a lot of modular refineries are already functional now and some the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board had helped in structuring them,” he said.
He said foreign investments have been made into the domestic refineries, in addition to the largest one in Africa, the Dangote Refinery.
“Government is encouraging the growth of these refineries for obvious reasons,” he said.
