Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, says Nigeria will become a
net exporter of petroleum products by next year.
The target means that Nigeria seeks to achieve high
production volumes that will enable increased export value of petroleum
products than imports.
Speaking on Monday, during the energy and labour summit of
the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN)
in Abuja, Kyari said no resource-dependent country entirely exports its crude
oil.
“Today, we export 100 per cent of our production, no
resource-dependent country does this and that is why we must deliver on our
mandate. I don’t want to speak about it; when it is done, you will see it,”
Kyari said.
“So, I don’t want to
tell you we are going to revamp our refineries. That is too much of PowerPoint
talks. So, it will be done and you will see it. I don’t want to speak about it,
we are tired of speaking about it.
“But what we must achieve is that this country must be a net
exporter of petroleum products and this is within sight.
“I strongly believe now, without giving you a date so that
people don’t get angry again, that in 2024, this country will become a net
exporter of petroleum products.
“The meaning of this
is that you will have sufficient volumes in-country and that you will have a
delta and that is where value is created.”
The plan comes amid a stream of bottlenecks in the country’s
oil and gas sector and decades-old moribund refineries gulping state funds for
maintenance.
Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum
resources (oil), had said the Port Harcourt refinery would begin operations by
December 2023.
He also said the Warri refinery will come on stream by the
end of the first quarter (Q1) of next year, while the Kaduna plant would also
come on board towards the end of next year.
In addition, the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity
Dangote refinery, which was officially inaugurated in May 2023, is scheduled to
commence operations this month.
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