President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised upgrades in the power and oil sectors in 2024. He stated that the ongoing work on the power and oil sectors will be delivered soon during his New Year’s Day speech to Nigerians on January 1, 2024.
According to him, his administration has been working within the last seven months of 2023 to improve service delivery across different sectors. He highlighted the power and oil sectors as some focus areas for this goal.
During his speech, Tinubu said that having laid the groundwork of the country’s economic recovery plans within the last seven months of 2023, the administration is now poised to accelerate the pace of service delivery across different sectors.
He stated:
- “Having laid the groundwork of our economic recovery plans within the last seven months of 2023, we are now poised to accelerate the pace of our service delivery across sectors.
- “Just this past December during COP28 in Dubai, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and I agreed and committed to a new deal to speed up the delivery of the Siemens Energy power project that will ultimately deliver a reliable supply of electricity to our homes and businesses under the Presidential Power Initiative which began in 2018.
- “Other power installation projects to strengthen the reliability of our transmission lines and optimize the integrity of our national grid is ongoing across the country. My administration recognizes that no meaningful economic transformation can happen without a steady electricity supply.
- “In 2024, we are moving a step further in our quest to restart local refining of petroleum products with Port Harcourt Refinery, and the Dangote Refinery which shall fully come on stream.”
In 2023, the Tinubu administration announced the mechanical completion of the Port Harcourt refinery. However, it’s essential to clarify that despite this milestone, the refinery is not yet equipped to refine crude oil.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has outlined a timeline for the phase two completion of the Port Harcourt refinery by the year 2024. GCEO, of NNPCL, Mele Kyari had previously stated:
- “In our quest to ensure that this refinery is re-streamed to continue to deliver value to Nigerians, we made a promise that we will reach a mechanical completion of phase one of the rehabilitation project by the end of December and get the other plants running in 2024. Today, we have kept those commitments. We are done with phase one. We will complete phase two as promised within 2024, maximum – the last quarter of 2024.”
It is worth noting that Mele Kyari, the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, had previously stated that Nigeria aims to transition into a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of 2024.
During the October 9 Energy and Labour Summit held in Abuja and organized by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Kyari gave assurances on Nigeria’s readiness to become a net exporter of petroleum products in 2024, noting that this is within sight and is in line with the President’s objective of delivering immediate benefits of sufficient in-country volumes while creating export revenue.
Additionally, it’s important to note that in 2024, the Dangote refinery hopes to commence operations as it has received several shipments of crude oil, shifting the 650,000 barrels per day facility towards the startup phase.
However, an important aspect to highlight is that initially, the Dangote refinery will focus on refining diesel and aviation fuel before it begins producing premium motor spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, for domestic consumption.
