Despite the current 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity of the country’s refineries and Dangote’s 650,000 bpd refinery expected by 2020, Nigeria will still have a shortfall of 427,000 bpd, equivalent of 20 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), per day.
Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, said the country would need a refining capacity of 1.52 million bpd in order to meet its PMS requirement by 2025.
He said in order to address the imminent shortfall in PMS demand, NNPC would be adding 215,000 bpd of refining capacity through private sector driven co-location at its existing refineries in Port Harcourt (100,000 bpd) and Warri (115,000 BPSD) respectively.
The NNPC boss said the improved in-country refining capacity plan will ensure Nigeria’s domestic crude oil utilization of up to 66 per cent with its attendant local manufacturing multiplier effect from associated industries such as petrochemicals for plastics and polymers used in everything from computers, medical equipment, wind turbines, solar panels, cosmetics, etc.