Nigeria to become net exporter of petroleum products by 2024, says Kyari

Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, says Nigeria will become a net exporter of petroleum products by next year.

The target means that Nigeria seeks to achieve high production volumes that will enable increased export value of petroleum products than imports.

Speaking on Monday, during the energy and labour summit of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja, Kyari said no resource-dependent country entirely exports its crude oil.

“Today, we export 100 per cent of our production, no resource-dependent country does this and that is why we must deliver on our mandate. I don’t want to speak about it; when it is done, you will see it,” Kyari said.

“So, I don’t want to tell you we are going to revamp our refineries. That is too much of PowerPoint talks. So, it will be done and you will see it. I don’t want to speak about it, we are tired of speaking about it.

“But what we must achieve is that this country must be a net exporter of petroleum products and this is within sight.

“I strongly believe now, without giving you a date so that people don’t get angry again, that in 2024, this country will become a net exporter of petroleum products.

“The meaning of this is that you will have sufficient volumes in-country and that you will have a delta and that is where value is created.” 

The plan comes amid a stream of bottlenecks in the country’s oil and gas sector and decades-old moribund refineries gulping state funds for maintenance.

Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources (oil), had said the Port Harcourt refinery would begin operations by December 2023.

He also said the Warri refinery will come on stream by the end of the first quarter (Q1) of next year, while the Kaduna plant would also come on board towards the end of next year.

In addition, the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity Dangote refinery, which was officially inaugurated in May 2023, is scheduled to commence operations this month.