“Fuel Importation Will End By Middle Of 2023 – NNPC Boss 

“This will happen, and the flow of supply will change. By the middle of next year, it will change”, he said.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

Nigeria would no longer import petroleum goods by 2023, according to the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited Mele Kyari.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Kyari announced this during a news conference at the state house in Abuja.

He says that the NNPC has access to 20% of the production from the Dangote refinery, which is set to open for business in 2019.

To fulfill the demand for petroleum products from Nigerians, he also stated that the refinery will expand the production from state-owned refineries.

According to him, the refinery, which would start operating in 2019, will boost state-owned refineries’ output to fulfill Nigerians’ demand for petroleum products.

He said, “The NNPC owns 20 percent equity in the Dangote refinery, and not only that, and we’re very proud of this. We’re not only owning 20% equity, we have the first right of refusal to supply crude oil to that plant. But we saw this energy transition challenge coming we knew at that time will come when you will look for people who will buy your crude oil you will not find and that means that we have locked down the ability to sell crude oil for 330,000 barrels minimum by right for the next 20 years.

“Also, by right, we have access to 20% of the production from that plant. That means that whatever it does, you know we have a right to take 20 percent of that production as part of our equity and this refinery will come on stream latest by the middle of next year.

“Projection is the first quarter, but we think that it can come up latest by the middle of next year. If it does, this refinery alone, because it has a 650,000 per barrel capacity and different technology, means that it can crack the crude in a manner that you can have more gasoline than a typical refinery.

“That means that the refinery has the ability to produce up to 50 million liters of PMS. So, the combination of that and our ability to bring back our refinery will completely eliminate any potential petroleum product in this country next year. You will not see any importation into this country next year. This is very practical. This is possible”.

When the nation’s refineries are finished, Kyari added, Nigeria would shortly turn into a net exporter of petroleum products.

“As a matter of fact, when we’re done with our refineries and the Dangote Refinery, very many small initiatives that we are doing; small, modular, condenser refineries that we’re building, if that happens, and we are very optimistic it will happen, you will see that this country will now be a net exporter, we hope of export of petroleum products, not just to the west African sub-region, but to the rest of the world.

“This will happen, and the flow of supply will change. By the middle of next year, it will change”, he said.

By the middle of next year, the head of NNPC gave Nigerians the assurance that they wouldn’t need to import any more petroleum products.