According to Nigeria’s oil minister Timipre Sylva, the country plans to stop importing petroleum products before or around the third quarter of 2023.
By the end of December, according to Sylva, a renovated refinery in Port Harcourt, an oil-producing city in the Niger Delta, will be able to produce 60,000 barrels per day of processed crude.
The minister added that he still anticipates the opening of the new Dangote refinery in the first quarter of 2019.
If I were to give it a longer timetable, we might actually stop importing petroleum goods around the third quarter of next year, but I believe that even before the third quarter of next year,” Sylva remarked.
Sylva told reporters in Abuja that Nigeria’s oil production has increased to roughly 1.3 million barrels per day from under 1 million barrels previously and that the nation intended to meet its OPEC quota by May of next year.
Nigeria’s largest export is oil, but crude theft and pipeline vandalism have reduced oil and gas production, displacing the nation from its position as Africa’s leading producer.
Nigeria trades its crude for refined petroleum products, but it is currently spending $1.5 billion modernizing the Port Harcourt refinery.
Nigeria intends to refine its own fuels in response to rising oil prices worldwide. It became dependent on imports as a result of past attempts to modernize its refineries, which failed.
