Nigeria to end fuel importation mid next year – Kyari

By Ukpono Ukpong and Benjamin Omoike

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, has said that Nigeria will end importation of petrol by the middle of 2023.

Kyari disclosed this yesterday during the Ministerial Media Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He assured that by middle of next year, all the country’s refineries would be up and running at 90% installed capacity, just as he said that the Dangote Refinery would be up and running also by next year.

He said: “We will get our refineries back and run it as a business. We will restore the Port Harcourt refineries to 90 percent installed capacity. We are borrowing from the AFREXIM bank and we will borrow $1 billion for this purpose.

“Now, even if all our four refineries in three locations are operating at a 90% installed capacity, they will only be able to raise 18 million litres of PMS.

“This means even if all of them are working today, you will still see a net deficit of PMS import into this country because our population has grown, and our demand has grown such that the volume of PMS required in this country is almost exponential, there is exponential growth in our need for PMS.

“Happily, NNPC has 20 percent equity in the $25 billion Dangote Refinery. If the Dangote refinery comes up, it will have the ability to produce 50 million litres of PMS. So the ability to bring up our refineries will completely eliminate any form of PMS importation to this country by mid-next year.

“When we are done with our refineries and the Dangote refinery, you will see that we will become a hub of exporter, just not to the African region but to the rest of the world. By middle of next year, the flow of supply will change.”

Kyari lamented that the entire network of pipelines for petroleum products distribution in the country has been shut down as a result of the activities of vandals.

While acknowledging the alarming rate of crude oil theft in the country, Kyari disclosed that it has become a widespread phenomenon involving all strata of the society including religious, local leaders and government officials.

Kyari said the company has discovered that stolen products are warehoused in churches and mosques with the knowledge of all members of the society where the incidents occur.

“We had to shut it down and as we speak,” he added, lamenting the level of losses that they have on product pipeline.

“When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines in Lagos, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individuals homes and not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and in mosques.

“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load it and leave without everybody else knowing about it. That everybody includes members of the community, members of the religious leadership and also and most likely government officials of all natures, including security agencies personnel.

“They are everywhere and I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta. There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 percent and you will continue to put products in this line,” he added.

The COO said, “Wherever our products have gone to, everybody has become some sort of vandal.”

He said beyond the issue of vandalism, the pipelines have also aged necessitating their shut down.

Kyari noted however that the company has decided to come up with a new pipeline management system that will enable them to be put to use for distribution of products in the country.

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He added: “As you may also be aware, because of the very unfortunate acts of vandals along our major pipelines from Atlas Cove all to Ibadan, and all others connecting all the 37 depots that we have across the country, none of them can take delivery of products today.

“And the reason is very simple. For some of the lines, for instance, from Warri to Benin, we haven’t operated that line for 15 years. Every molecule of product that we put get lost and, of course, you remember the sad incident of the fire incident very close to Warri, close to Sapele that killed so many people.”

The COO disclosed that 122 suspects of crude oil theft have been arrested and would be prosecuted in line with the law of the nation.

Kyari assured that they were working round the clock to ensure the completion of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) of Trans-Sahara pipeline, and Trans-Morocco pipelines.