Nigeria aims to stop importing petroleum products before or around the third quarter of 2023, according to oil minister Timipre Sylva.
Sylva stated that a rebuilt refinery in the oil-producing Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt will start providing 60,000 barrels per day of processed crude by the end of December.
The minister also stated that the new Dangote refinery will still be operational in the first quarter of next year.
“We’re expecting that we will actually be exiting the importation of petroleum products from maybe about third quarter next year if I was to give it a longer timeframe, but I believe that even before the third quarter next year,” Sylva said.
Nigeria’s oil output has increased to around 1.3 million barrels per day from less than one million barrels earlier, and the nation intended to reach its OPEC quota by May of next year, Sylva told reporters in Abuja.
Oil is Nigeria’s largest export earner, but crude theft and pipeline vandalism have reduced oil and gas output, pushing the country out of first place in Africa.
Nigeria exchanges crude for refined petroleum products, but the Port Harcourt refinery is being modernised at a cost of $1.5 billion.
With global oil prices so high, Nigeria wishes to refine its own fuels. Previous efforts to modernise its refineries failed, leaving it dependent on imports.
