“Petrol Importation Stops In 2024” – FG

According to the federal government, the importation of petroleum products in Nigeria will be completely eliminated by 2024

Timipre Sylva, the state minister for petroleum resources, announced this on Monday, January 9.

In his presentation of the ministry’s scorecard, Sylva stated that by the first quarter of 2024, the Port-Harcourt refinery’s rehabilitation would be partially completed, the 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) Dangote Refinery would also be operational, in addition to several projects for modular refineries across the nation.

He assured Nigerians that the combined output of the Port-Harcourt refinery, Dangote refinery, and modular refineries would put an end to the importation of fuel.

Sylva also disclosed that the federal government took a 20% equity stake in the Dangote Refinery on purpose in order to guarantee a local supply of the products made by the private refineries.

Additionally, he stated that the federal government acquired a 30% equity stake in several refineries, including the 10,000 BPD Duport Modular Refinery in Edo State and the 5000 BPD WalterSmith Modular Refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State.

The Minister emphasized that the federal government is working to address the issue of crude oil access that modular refineries are facing and added that the federal government’s position was that subsidy regulation was no longer viable.

Sylva claimed that the removal of subsidies would attract more investment into the petroleum sector as many private investors would be willing to invest in the construction of refineries, assuring Nigerians that the enormous sum currently spent on subsidies would be allocated to other developmental projects.

It would interest you to know that Nigeria exports the same percentage of oil to Europe as Saudi Arabia.

Yes! It’s that bad. Both countries depend majorly on crude oil as their primary source of revenue but yet while Saudi Arabia has 20% of its population in poverty, Nigeria has 63% in MULTI- dimensional poverty.