The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, expects to cease the importation of refined petroleum products by December 2024.
The oil firm is also working towards making Nigeria a net exporter of refined petroleum products by the same deadline.
“We will no longer be talking about fuel importation by the end of 2024. I am very optimistic that this will crystallize,” the Group Chief Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari said on Thursday at a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.
Despite being an oil-producing nation and one of Africa’s largest oil producers, Nigeria cannot refine its oil.
The country imports refined petroleum products for its own use from other nations like India, Belgium, UAE, and the Netherlands as four state-run refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are moribund.
The Dangote oil refinery considered a “game-changer” in ending the country’s fuel imports, launched in May is yet to take off.
Yet the NNPCL chief Mele Kyari believes the ambitious goal is achievable. All refineries, he hopes, will be fully operational before the end of 2024.
“In 2024, many of the initiatives including the rehabilitation of our refineries and also the efforts of small-scale refineries, and the upcoming Dangote refinery, will make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products in 2024,” he said.
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