Nigeria will stop importing petroleum products for domestic consumption, according to a forecast made yesterday by the Federal Government, by the first quarter of 2024. Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said this during the 16th session of the PMB scorecard series in Abuja.
According to the minister, the Port-Harcourt Refinery’s rehabilitation will be mostly finished by the first quarter of 2024, and the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dangote Refinery will also be operational by that time.
In the Port-Harcourt Refinery complex, Sylva expressly stated that the 60,000 bpd capacity refinery would be operational by the first quarter of 2024.
The Dangote Refinery, the largest single-train refinery in the world with an investment of over $25 billion, together with numerous other projects for modular refineries in the nation, will also be operational before the end of 2023, the Minister stated.
He promised that Nigeria will stop importing petroleum products once the Port-Harcourt, Dangote, and modular refineries are all producing at full capacity.
According to the minister, the federal government took a 20% equity investment in the Dangote Refinery on purpose in order to guarantee local supply of the products made by private refineries.
In addition, the minister stated that the Federal Government acquired a 30% equity participation in many refineries, including the 10,000 bpd Duport Modular Refinery in Edo State and the 5000 bpd WalterSmith Modular Refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State.
It has been stated numerous times that gasoline subsidies are no longer viable. Sylva highlighted that funds used to subsidize gasoline will likely been used to fund national development projects. He also refuted claims that the price of gasoline could fall as low as N40 per liter.
The minister also revealed that Nigeria has developed four modular refineries and that the government is in discussions with several private investors about investments in the industry.
