According to a projection made by the Federal Government on Monday, Nigeria will stop importing petroleum products in the first quarter of 2024.
Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, stated that by the first quarter of 2024, the Port Harcourt refinery’s rehabilitation will be partially complete and the 650,000 barrel per day Dangote Refinery will also be operational.
Sylva said this during the resumption of the “PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023)” by the Ministry of Information and Culture.
The 60,000 bpd-capacity refinery within the Port Harcourt Refinery complex would be ready for production by Q1 2023, Sylva expressly stated when presenting the ministry’s scorecard.
The Minister also talked about many projects for modular refineries in the country, as well as the Dangote Refinery, which has an investment of more than $25 billion and is the world’s largest single-train refinery.
Therefore, he gave Nigerians the assurance that the nation will stop importing petroleum products once the Port Harcourt refinery, the Dangote refinery, and the modular refineries are all operating at full capacity.
The minister said that the Federal Government purposefully acquired a 20% equity position in the Dangote Refinery in order to guarantee local supply of the products made by the private refineries.
The minister also said that the FG bought a 30% stake in several refineries, including the 10,000 bpd Duport Modular Refinery in Edo State and the 5,000 bpd Walter Smith Modular Refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State.
He said that the problem with the modular refineries not being able to get crude oil was being fixed by the government right now.
The minister added that the sizable sum of money used for subsidies may be used for other projects that would benefit more Nigerians.
He went on to say that getting rid of subsidies would encourage more private investment in the oil industry because more people would be willing to help pay for building refineries.
