The Federal Government has projected that by the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria will put an end to the importation of petroleum products into the country.
The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva made the announcement on Monday, January 9.
Presenting the scorecard of his ministry, Sylva said by the first quarter of 2024, the rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt refinery would be partly completed while the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity Dangote Refinery would also be on stream in addition to several modular refineries projects in the country.
He assured Nigerians that fuel importation will end with the combined production of the Port-Harcourt refinery, Dangote refinery and the modular refineries.
Sylva further revealed that the federal government deliberately took 20 per cent equity stake in the Dangote Refinery to ensure local supply of the productions by the private refineries.
He also said the federal government took 30 per cent equity stake in each of the 5000bpd WalterSmith modular refinery in Ibigwe, Imo state and 10,000 bpd Duport Modular Refinery in Edo state among others.
Stressing that the federal government is addressing the challenge of access to crude oil being faced by the modular refineries, the Minister added that the position of the federal government that subsidy regine was no longer sustainable.
Sylva who stated that the removal of subsidy would attract more investment into the petroleum sector as many private people would be willing to invest in building refineries, also assured Nigerians that the huge fund being spent on subsidy would be deployed to other developmental projects.
