By our Correspondents |
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated the 5,000 barrels per day Waltersmith Modular Refinery and performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the 45,000 barrels per day refinery yesterday at Ibigwe Field in Ohaji Egbema local government area of Imo State.
The president directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the ministry of Petroleum Resources to make adequate crude oil supply to modular refineries in the country.
According to him, Nigeria is inching closer to achieving its desire to be self-sustainable in domestic crude refining and becoming a net exporter of petroleum products.
Buhari said sustained feedstock supply will enable the refinery achieve its expansion initiative which is targeting 50,000barrels a day in the second phase with 45,000 barrels daily capacity.
He restated the country’s determination to be a net products exporter not only in Africa but beyond.
An elated President Buhari said the completion of the project is a milestone in the present administration’s policy to upscale local refining and build local capacity.
He recalled that several companies had been issued operating licenses but no one came to fruition except the Waltersmith Modular Refinery, which in addition to advancing economic prosperity of the country will create thousands of jobs.
The president stated that the Modular Refinery policy roadmap initiated in 2018 with four cardinal projections aims at collocation of new refineries and construction of Greenfield refineries to transform Nigeria into products exporting nation.
He said the federal government through the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) initiated the novel concept of collaboration in refinery projects which prospectively resulted in the construction and completion of the Waltersmith project.
On his part, the minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the country was targeting 250,000 barrels per day refining through the Modular Refinery roadmap.Sylvia noted that government has taken bold steps in stabilising the downstream oil sector with removal of petroleum subsidy and transition to deregulation of the sector.He said the idea is to free the market for private sector participation and drive competition with better products and better customer services.According to him, the subsidy withdrawal has freed resources for the government to enable it to deploy critical infrastructure for economic development.For his part, the group managing director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, said with the spate of development in the refining sector, Nigeria will become a net products exporter by 2023.Kyari said that with the inauguration and incremental value addition to crude oil, there […]