Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said domestic crude oil production is on track in the country with four of such facilities presently operational. Nigeria is focusing more on putting more Modular Refinery Structures into production in order to increase the country’s refining capacity.
Waltersmith Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited with a capacity of 5,000 barrels per day, OPAC Refineries, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (Train 3), Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited, and Lowrie Refinery Limited are the ones that have started up.
Excel Refinery Limited in Bayelsa State, Conodit Refinery Nigeria Limited, Duport Midstream in Delta State, Clairgold Oil & Gas Engineering Limited, Ogini Refinery Limited, Etopo Energy Plc, and Gasoline Associates International Limited are among the licensed refineries. Of all the refineries, Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical company had completed construction and has been commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari, OPAC refinery has completed Construction and Plant at Commissioning stage, while Niger Delta Petroleum Resources has also completed Construction and Commissioning ongoing.
Also note that the Dangote oil refinery company’s overall installation has surpassed 80.3%, and Edo refining and petrochemical company’s construction and plant are at the commissioning stage, according to the Minister. He said that the federal government has approved a large number of modular refineries, with some of them already up and running.
These development stands to show that the FG has come to face the reality of the possibility of shortage in production, in previous years the norm by the FG was to destroy these facilities and declaring them illegal.
But with this development, it means the FG is willing to incorporate the practice into the legal system and have them produce Petroleum products in small quantities for rural areas and to serve the demands of a few while under FG regulations. The effect this could have on prices of AGO PMS DPK is a stable price regime that reflects International prices and it will slowly eradicate importation on a small scale.
Interesting.