By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria is targeting to pump 2 million barrels per day when all loose ends are tied, according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Mr Heineken Lokpobiri.
Mr Lokpobiri stated this at the weekend at the end of a three-day retreat for Ministers, Special Advisers and other presidential aides at the Conference Centre of State House, Abuja.
He said, “If we don’t increase the crude production, the midstream and downstream will also fail. We must produce the crude to refine before distribution but our problem right now, which we inherited, is the low level of production, which was a result of insecurity issues, lack of investments, and all other concerns.
“But we are addressing all those issues and I believe that in the next few months, we will be able to come up with a different report.
“We have addressed the issue of insecurity, we have rekindled the confidence of international oil companies to come back and begin to reinvest.
“We are addressing some of the issues they have raised with us, which has to do with both fiscal and regulatory, and so on and so forth.
“So, I believe that as a ministry we have set some very ambitious numbers for ourselves that before the end of the year, we should be doing at least close to two million barrels per day.”
Giving updates about the country’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, he said the responsibility and blame for any hiccup belonged to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited if the deadline was not met by the end of 2024.
“Yes, the rehabilitation of the refineries, if you could remember, was started by the previous administration and as part of the president’s directive, I have gone around all the refineries and from what they have briefed me, Port Harcourt has 3 phases, so Phase 1 will be ready by the end of this year.
“I am not the one who is directly in charge of rehabilitation, it is the NNPCL and they have told me and I am holding them accountable.
“For Warri refinery, they said Phase 1 will be ready by the end of the year. Phases 2 and 3 in Port Harcourt will be ready next year and the whole of Kaduna refinery will be ready by the end of next year. That is what they said and I am holding them accountable to their words.
“I will be going there in the next few weeks, I will go there regularly and sometimes without a schedule so that nobody plans for me. I just appear to see what is going on.
“I believe that those refineries if we can achieve some level of rehabilitation by the end of this year, will also improve our domestic refining capacity. But that is not even the problem, Dangote refinery, too, is coming.”
Speaking on modular refineries, Mr Lokpobiri said, “We have a lot of modular refineries that we have given licences but the challenge has been the feedstock. Even if you have the modular refinery, do you have the crude to be able to refine?”
He revealed that more modular refineries were being licenced by the present administration but warned that the government would not hesitate to revoke licences of underutilised modular refineries.
