The federal government said it has enhanced partnership with the private sector refinery operators to increase domestic refining capacity, and make products more readily available in the country.

This is as the 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity, Port Harcourt Refinery is billed to begin to refine petroleum products this first quarter of 2023.

Minister of state for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva who made these known yesterday, revealed that the federal government acquired 20 to 30 per cent equity stake in private refineries including Duport refinery (30 per cent), Walter Smith (30 per cent), Azikel (20 per cent), as well as Dangote (20 per cent).

Sylva made this known while presenting achievements of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja yesterday, as part of the ongoing PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023)” organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture.

Sylva said some of the targets include the establishment of condensate refineries, complete valuation for rehabilitation of the four existing refineries, establishment of the modular refinery intervention fund and the establishment of crude oil domestic supply obligation.

“We have issued licenses to prospective investors for the establishment of refineries, some private operators established modular refineries like Walter Smith, Azikel, Anoh, Duport, while existing refineries are being rehabilitated,” he said.

He said that the promise made was not to complete the rehabilitation of the refineries by May 2023, but that the fuel plant will be rehabilitated by the end of Q4 2022.

“Our promise has been that the 60,000 bpd plant within the Port Harcourt refinery by the end of Q4 2022, it is being completed and is going to be started by Q1 2023 as promised,” he said.

Speaking on subsidy payments, the minister said it is not sustainable adding that it also has an adverse impact on the activities of agencies under the sector.

“As a country, it is a national consensus now that this subsidy is not sustainable; what is desirable is to ensure that petroleum price is market- driven and it will also drive investments from the private sector,” he said.

He also said the profitability of refineries under a subsidy regime will also be difficult, adding that the money spent on subsidy can be deployed to other developmental projects like refinery development and also increase funds for the government.

“Let us remove subsidy so that the government will have more money to deploy to the development of things that will be useful to all of us as a country,” he said.

In his address, the minister said that some strategic priorities of the sector include eradicating smuggling of PMS across Nigerian borders, completing the gas flare commercialization program, increasing crude oil production to 3 million barrels per day, reducing the cost of crude oil extraction by at least five per cent, boosting private sector partnership to increase domestic refining capacity, creating jobs and eradicating poverty.

He added that activities and efforts from agencies under the ministry such as NMDPRA, NCDMB, NNRA, PTDF, PTI, NURPC and NNPC were also geared towards achieving the priorities.

Highlighting progress achieved on the eradication of PMS movement across Nigeria’s borders, he said 255,659 trucks out were equalised at 66.7 million litres average daily sufficiency, while 1277 supplying vessels were tracked and over 25 billion litres of total PMS was discharged with N173 billion equalisation paid.

“However key issues encountered include marketers’ infraction, defaulting marketers, delay in submission of product out turn form by marketers, arrival/ discharge quantity variation and sharp practices by operators,” he said.

In order to achieve the target completely, he said there is need for full system automation, a review of existing penalties, ensuing strict compliance to regulations and strong inter agency collaboration and transparency for petroleum product supply value chain activities around the border.

For the gas flare commercialisation program, the minister said so far, 48 flare sites has been identified with plans that they will be allocated by the fourth quarter of 2022, also there has been an 8.6 per cent change in domestic LPG demand while the ongoing evaluation studies is 50 per cent completed.

He however called for more sensitisation for operators and users as well as more collaboration between sector regulators and industry players.

Sylva said some challenges include crude supply obligation for completed refineries and funding support for modular refineries, hence he asked that an intervention fund be established at the CBN.

Speaking on product supply and the intervention of the DSS, Sylva said there are various players, marketers, suppliers filing stations and also people trying to cut corners hence the DSS will come in as a law enforcement agency to correct the infractions.

Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer, Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, while reiterating an update on the Port Harcourt refinery said the total rehabilitation of the refinery will take 42 months from the day the contract was awarded, and is done on basis and by plants.

“Our promise is to start up the fuel plant which is the 60,000 barrels per day component of this activity which was to commence by the last quarter of 2022 but this was not practical but we will start this up by the first quarter of 2023,” he said.

In his address, minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said beyond unprecedented infrastructure development, the Muhammadu Buhari administration is leaving behind legacies of revamped security, social investment, self-sufficiency in staples and probity among others.

“Our pace-setting social investment programmes like N-Power, School Feeding, Conditional Cash Transfer and GEEP (Government Enterprise Empowerment programme) have benefitted millions of our citizens, both young and old, and this can neither be trivialised nor denied,” he said.

He said under this administration, fertilizer blending plants in the country had increased from 10 in 2015 to 48 while the number of rice mills had increased significantly which caused Nigeria’s import of rice from Thailand to drop significantly.

He stressed that beyond infrastructure, the Buhari administration was leaving a legacy of a social investment programme that is unprecedented in Africa and had enhanced the quality of life of the beneficiaries.

“Our pace-setting social investment programmes like N-Power, School Feeding, Conditional Cash Transfer and GEEP (Government Enterprise Empowerment programme) have benefitted millions of our citizens, both young and old, and this can neither be trivialised nor denied,” he said.

According to the minister, the Buhari government was also leaving a legacy of putting Nigeria on the path of self-sufficiency in many staples, including rice.

He said fertiliser blending plants in the country had increased astronomically from 10 in 2015 to 142 while the number of rice mills had increased from 10 in 2015 to 80 presently.

The minister said based on the achievements, Nigeria, which was the number one export destination for rice in 2014, according to Thai authorities, now ranked as number 79.

Mohammed added that the Buhari administration was leaving a legacy of inclusiveness, especially in the areas of infrastructure and social development.

According to him, there is no state in Nigeria that has no road, bridge or housing project irrespective of party affiliation.

The minister also said that the Buhari administration was leaving a legacy of leapfrogging Nigeria into the digital era.

He further said the president had signed into law the Startup Bill to make Nigeria a global hub for digital talent and investment and the country had also kick-started the national rollout of 5G while increasing 4G base stations from 13,823 in 2019 to 36,751.

The minister also said that the Buhari administration was leaving a legacy of probity with zero tolerance for corruption.

He said while other administrations pampered corrupt people, the Buhari government exposed and put them on trial.

“Whereas the immediate past administration came up with such programmes as TSA (Treasury Single Account) and IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System), they were implemented largely on paper until we came on board and ensured total implementation.

The minister also said that the Buhari administration was leaving a legacy of a petroleum sector that could serve the interest of the nation especially with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

The Act, according to the minister, provided legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry.

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