FG plans to end refined petroleum products imports by Q3/2023

Port Harcourt refinery will be delivering 60,000 barrels per day by the end of December 2022.

The federal government plans to end refined petroleum products imports by Q3/2023.

This is according to Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources. He said this during a press briefing in the country’s capital, Abuja, on Tuesday. Sylva said:

• “We are expecting that we will be exiting the importation of petroleum products from maybe about the third quarter next year if I were to give it a longer timeframe, but I believe that even before the third quarter next year.”

He said the government can carry out this plan of action because the refurbishment of the country’s refineries will be completed soon. As reported by Reuters, Sylva said the Port Harcourt refinery, which has been undergoing refurbishment at the cost of $1.5 billion, will be delivering 60,000 barrels per day of refined crude by the end of December 2022.

Nairametrics earlier reported that the Warri refinery will commence operations in December 2023. Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Daewoo signed a Memorandum of Understanding to rehabilitate the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refinery, which will be completed by 2023.

OPEC quota: According to Sylva, Nigeria is hoping to meet its OPEC quota by May 2023, as opposed to previous months in 2022, when crude oil theft and other challenges, hampered growth in the country’s oil sector. Nigeria was only able to raise its crude oil production output to 1.2 million barrels per day in October 2022.

An anonymous source at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources told Nairametrics on Tuesday, that the issue of concern for him regarding Sylva’s statement is the possibility of the Port Harcourt Refinery refining the petroleum products needed by the general population at 60,000 barrels per day.

• “If the Warri Refinery will be active by December 2023 and the Kaduna refinery has no definite time for activity resumption, only the Port Harcourt Refinery will be ready by Q3/2023. Is that enough for the country?”

Meanwhile, November 23 data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) shows that the national average daily consumption of premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol is 60,000,000 liters.

For the record: In October 2022, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) disclosed that the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Petroleum Refinery were 97% completed.