By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced that the country will soon join the league of net exporters of refined petroleum products from December 2024.
This was disclosed by the chief executive of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, on Monday, when he briefed members of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance.
He stated that this would be possible with the commencement of operations by the Port Harcourt Refinery from next month, and the Warri Refinery by September and the Kaduna Refinery by December.
In a statement on Tuesday, the NNPC said Mr Kyari was at the parliament yesterday along with other critical stakeholders of the nation’s economy at an Emergency Interactive Session organised by the Senate Committee on Finance, led by Senator Muhammed Sani Musa, to discuss economic issues.
“During the session, [Mr] Kyari explained that based on emerging indicators and developments in the energy sector, Nigeria will be a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of the year,” the post read.
“The GCEO also noted that the recent growth in the nation’s crude oil production was a result of Mr President’s Executive Orders and the ongoing war on low crude oil production embarked on by the NNPC Limited and other industry stakeholders.
“The NNPC Limited, Kyari added, will continue to live up to its mandate of guaranteeing national energy security, as stipulated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021,” he added.
Mr Kyari admitted that he had earlier announced two weeks from March 2024 as the kick-off date for production from the Port Harcourt refinery, and maintained that he is not lying with the new August date.
The refinery complex comprises two refineries at Alesa-Eleme near Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Port Harcourt II (New Refinery) is a complex, conversion refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 7,500,000 MTA (150,000 barrels per day).
It came on stream in 1988 and was originally intended to serve as an export refinery. It has been subsequently dedicated to domestic market service given frequent interruptions in supply from the other three refineries in Nigeria.