The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has affirmed that it is keen on meeting its December 2019 deadline proposed by the Federal Government to end the importation of petroleum products.
This will be a progress, seeing Nigeria spends a lot on the importation of petroleum products. In the third quarter of 2018 alone, Nigeria imported 5.56 billion litres of refined petroleum, which is a 5 per cent increase quarter on quarter.
This ultimately means its recent agreement with the British Petroleum (BP) might be the last of it if all plans go well.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said that measures had been taken to achieve the target at the Offshore Technology Conference 2018 Nigeria Oil Industry award dinner in Houston, Texas, United States.
He stated that tendering exercises for companies interested in the rehabilitation programmes of the nation’s four refineries using a contractor-financing model had been completed and successful companies for the different projects would soon be announced.
“This model is expected to be a self-sustaining financial model with near zero reliance on the Federal Government funds. For smooth running and implementation, we are also changing the operating and commercial framework of the refineries to make them work efficiently and be commercially viable”, he said.
About NNPC
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was created by the merger of Nigeria National Oil Company (NNOC) and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in accordance to decree 33 of 1977. NNPC is a Federal Government owned corporation that is responsible for the management of the nation’s oil resources. In addition to this, the corporation was given powers and operational interests in refining, petrochemicals and products transportation as well as marketing.
Between 1978 and 1989, NNPC constructed refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt and took over the 35,000-barrel Shell Refinery established in Port Harcourt in 1965. They have about 22 depots across the country.
