Nigeria’s refinery capacity will reach 1.1 million barrels per day in 2020, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu said yesterday.

This, according to Kachikwu, will be achieved when Dangote Petrochemical refinery’s 650,000 bpd, Nigeria’s four refineries of 450,000bpd capacity and three modular refineries come on stream in two years’ time.

Speaking in Lagos at 18th edition of International Biennial Health Safety and Environmental (HSE) Conference on oil and gas industry in Nigeria organised by Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Kachikwu said Nigeria’s desire to achieve fuel sufficiency in 2019 may not be realisable, but 2020 is sure.

According to him, 10 out of 20 private modular refineries of about 400,000 refining capacity have shown serious committed, three of which he said may come on stream in 2019 while Dangote refinery is expected to come on stream in 2020.

“I am very excited about the development as they tend to create fuel sufficiency as well as employment opportunities. We are also working hard to see Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s four refineries coming up with 425,000 b/d in 2020. Hopefully, we will be having board meeting next week where we will take some soft landing decision for the commercial investment on the refineries. In all, we are expecting about 1.1 million barrels refining capacity by 2020”, he said.

Daily Trust