By YANGE IKYAA
The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, on Wednesday said that current government policies and programmes being used to drive the Nigerian oil and gas industry are capable of helping the country to further deepen its local refining capacity and achieve zero crude oil export.
He emphasized that the Federal Government’s Refining Roadmap has four areas of focus, namely rehabilitation of the existing four national refineries, co-location of new refineries, construction of greenfield refineries, and the construction of modular refineries, from which “a combined refining capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day is expected within the next five years.”
Wabote, who was speaking at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit in Abuja also said that for Nigeria, oil and gas remains at the top of the locally available energy mix to meet the needs of its national population, and that various policies and programmes of the government over the years have set in motion key developmental activities in the economy that must be completed.
“As a local content practitioner and someone who believes in this, I see a number of scenarios playing out. As we seek to create employment, conserve foreign exchange and utilize in-country capacity, the first scenario is zero crude oil export, in which we fully refine in-country all the oil produced from our fields in Nigeria and export excess refined products.
“This scenario might appear far-fetched to some people, but an examination of the various initiatives in the country show that we are about half way there in realizing it, even if not intended at the onset.”
Wabote further explained that about 400,000 barrels per day of refining capacity is expected from the rehabilitated four NNPC refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, using target performance of not less than 90 percent of name plate capacity. Also, the mechanically completed Dangote Refinery in Lagos and the BUA Refinery in Akwa Ibom State are expected to deliver 650,000 and 200,000 barrels per day and respectively.
In the aspect of modular refineries, NCDMB is saddled as a catalyst to enhance the realization of the Federal Government’s Refining Roadmap. The agency’s partnership with Waltersmith resulted in the delivery of 5000bpd modular refinery in Imo State and next in view is the 2,500bpd Dupor Refinery located in Edo State that will be due for commissioning by the second quarter of 2022. Others under construction are the 2000bpd Atlantic Refinery and the 12,000bpd Azikel Refinery, both in Bayelsa State.
