Nigeria Will Become Net Exporter of Petroleum Product By 2024

Eko Hot Blog reports that The Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) Limited, Mele Kyari has said Nigeria would become a net exporter of premium motor spirit by 2024.

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He explained that the coming on-stream of refineries would guarantee energy security for the country and ensure growth for the oil and gas industry.

Kyari made this known during the ongoing Energy Labour Summit organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja.

He insisted that refineries would commence operation before the end of the year to meet the demands of Nigerians for petroleum products.

The NNPC boss pointed out that while it was difficult to actually ascertain the amount of petrol consumed daily in the country; evacuations from depots have dropped by 30 percent since subsidy removal was announced.

“Today, we export 100 per cent of our productions, no resource-dependent country does this and that is why we must deliver on our mandate. I don’t want to speak about it; when it is done, you will see it.

“So, I don’t want to tell you we are going to revamp our refineries. That is too much of PowerPoint talks. So, it will be done and you will see it. I don’t want to speak about it, we are tired of speaking about it.

He explained that since the Petroleum Industry Act abolished the payment of subsidies on February 17, 2022, the government decided to provide a budget to cover the cost until 30th June, 2023.

According to the NNPCL chief, subsidy payments almost bankrupted the company.

He said: “From 2022 until 29th of May 2023, not a single Naira was paid to the NNPC Limited as cost of subsidies. That means we were carrying the entire cost on the balance sheet of the NNPC. We hold back fiscal revenues, taxes, royalties, including profits, and yet because we are seeing values exceeding N400 billion in a month for subsidy, there is no way these fiscal obligations will cover the cost of subsidy.

“So we were heading towards what we can call, technically, the bankruptcy of NNPC because we were going into negative cash flow. By the end of June 2023, we would have been in negative cash flow. What this simply means is that NNPC would have been bankrupt if that bold decision was not taken by the President.” “So we were heading towards what we can call, technically, the bankruptcy of NNPC because we were going into negative cash flow. By the end of June 2023, we would have been in negative cash flow. What this simply means is that NNPC would have been bankrupt if that bold decision was not taken by the President.”

Speaking at the summit on Monday, Kyari said: “We are the only company importing petrol into the country. None of them can do it today. For them, access to foreign exchange is difficult. We create foreign exchange (FX), therefore we have access to FX, while their access to FX is limited.”

“Government is putting money into this and NNPC is investing with partners and we believe in 2024 the revolution will become very manifest and people will have access to cleaner and cheaper fuel in 2024.

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“It’s already happening, a number of buses have been converted and a number of state governments have bought buses that are running on CNG. We are carrying out significant projects that will bring CNG into the market with our partners and we believe that this will work for our country,” he said.

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