Group Managing Director NNPC Limited Mallam Kyari has said that Nigeria can not stop fuel importation now even if the four refineries in the country are working at 90 per cent capacity. he said “We cannot stop importation of petro for now even if our four refineries located in three locations are working at 90% installed capacity. We still have to import PMS. Our demand for petro has grown exponentially. We will still have deficit in petro demand. The middle class has grown and almost everybody now has a car that needs petro. Maybe we will stop complete importation of PMS when the Dangote refinery comes on stream. The refinery has 50 million litres of PMS capacity. Luckily, Nigeria has 20% equity shares in the Dangote refinery.
“I am very proud to say this. It means Nigeria have a say in the operations of the refinery. In the next 20 years, our crude oil will no longer be in demand. It may be useless and you will be begging people to take it off you. The energy transition will be in full operation then. We have an agreement with Dangote refinery. We have first right of refusal to supply crude to the refinery. What this means is that in the next twenty years, we have a secured place to sell our crude oil. We for saw the energy transition challenge.”. Nigeria will hopefully Stop the importation of petro by next year when the Dangote refinery comes into operations and the small modular refineries the country is building come on stream. By then, the country will be self sufficient in the refining of petro and we will be even net exporter of petro to our neighbouring countries. By middle of next year, Nigeria will be a hub of Petroleum products. We will not only be supplying petro to our West Africa neighours, we will be supplying to the rest of the world.”
Meanwhile NNPC the GMD said that the company now has a control centre like the world renowned Saudi Arabia oil company, Saudi Aramco control centre. Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari said this during the regular State House press briefing. Nigerians have been clamouring for NNPC to have a control centre where the activities and oil production of the country can be monitored to check crude oil theft and stop other revenue linkages in the oil sector. Control centre enables the oil company to monitor the pipelines, the production and production volume, the movement of crude produced, amongst other. The Saudi Arabia oil giant, Saudi Aramco is famous for having one of the best control centre in the world. According to Mallam Kyari, NNPC has also set up a control centre in April this year, 2022. Though not yet in the scale of Saudi Aramco, but NNPC can now monitor it’s activities and oil production.
The GCEO said “As I was coming here, ( briefing ) people were sending me the videos of Saudi Aramco. I can inform you now that we also now have our control centre. Though not yet in the scale of Saudi Aramco, because we just started, I can assure you we will soon get there . We can now monitor our operations. The centre was set up in April this year. We now have visibility around our operations, we now have access to data of what we are doing. We are cooperating with our partners through technology. We now have access to our platforms, especially security platforms. We have access and can monitor our assets. We can control them remotely through cameras. We can direct their operations from the centre. We now have complete visibility. It is not rocket science. I have been to the Saudi Aramco personally. We will soon get there and very soon, people will start sending our videos and not the Saudi Aramco out. Meanwhile, the GCEO of NNPC also said yesterday that Nigeria cannot stop the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, even if the country’s four refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are working at ultima capacity. According to him, the total installed capacity of the four refineries is 18 million litres of PMS per day. And the country’s current demand is more than that.
