Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has said that, the federal government in its efforts to permanently end fuel crisis in the country is to build three more refineries in Kaduna, Port-harcout and Warri.
He said when that is completed as planned by 2018, Nigeria will start exporting refined petroleum products for the first time since inception by 2019.
This was also as he promised that, every household in the country will get free gas cylinder before the end of next year, to stop over dependence on kerosene.
The Minister who doubles as the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated these while addressing Nigerians at the Town Hall Meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in Kaduna on Tuesday.
According to Kachikwu, “More refineries have to be built, and the target is to build three more refineries to be located in Kaduna, Potharcout and Warri taking advantage on the share facilities.
“And if we do this, by 2018 if all our refineries are working we will drop importation by 60 percent. And by 2019 if the four located refineries begin to work and am sure they will, we will actually begin to export petroleum product for the first time in this country.
“Let me start by apologising for the difficulties you been experiencing in terms of getting fuel.
“Having arrived Kaduna this morning from Lagos, I did a quick tour of Kaduna metropolis. Although the situation is improving but I felt sad still that some areas around the metropolis are not getting the product especially that you have a refinery.
“But the realities about the situation is that wherever I turn when I was appointed I found problems when.
“The refineries were not working when I was appointed in October. If I turn to the pipelines, they were not in existence. If I turn to the upstream, there no funding. So production was sliding.
“If I turn to the NNPC structure, there was massive issue of transparency that everybody talked about. And if I turn to what the future was to Nigeria, I saw the solution rather than hope.
“So, I took over the mantle under these circumstances. But I was not discouraged because the President is committed to surmounting the problems.
“This is the first time we have two refineries working simultaneously in the last Eight years. For the first time in 20 years we are working to restructure the NNPC.
“On the fuel issue, the reality is that as long as these refineries don’t work in absolutely top capacity, as long as we don’t have the foreign exchange to bring in the products, as long as the price of crude continues to slide, and part of my responsibility is getting it up.
“As long as such conditions continue, we will have problems with fuel. So we have to apply brain work to it.
“Do, I want to see the problems continue? No. There is a lot of improvement but there is a lot of work require. And in the next three months I assure you will see great improvement in terms of fuel supply.
“Most importantly, we need to begin to developed massive infrastructural support in this country. The pipelines must get to work, got to get investors to invest in them because we do not have the money to build them up.
“For the upstream sector where production has been climbing down, our target is to move production up to 2.3 Million barrel, but I am personally committed to 2.5 million barrel.
“The blowing of pipelines cannot drive us back, we are committed. The days of hopelessness have passed, the days of careless expenditure are passed, the days of corruption are going, and we are heading to the future were we can deliver a country we can all be proud of,” he explained.
He however promised that, “to improve our marketing outlets, we are building about 700 marketing outlets all over the country, one per local government. And we are asking the state governments to give us land to do this. We are building multi big stations with shopping malls, which will beef up activities in the local government areas.
“We have the concept of providing free gas cylinders to every Nigerian household, which will be roll out next year so that we can pull Nigerians away from the use of Kerosene to cleaner fuel,” he promised.
However, before rounding off his address, Kachikwu asked everybody in the hall to stand up, holding hands together and recite the following: “we are Nigerians, we are made by our common destiny, our purpose, our country is bless in ways unimaginable, we as Nigerians are not limited by hope, not limited by resources, not limited by talent, not limited by aspirations. Our nation has had its challenges but we remain abundantly bless, so today, this moment, now going forward, we join hands across our land, hands across our tribes, hands across our religion, hands to our leaders and our followers. And as Nigerians unite in struggle, we have decided to build the Nigeria of our dreams, a Nigeria of less criticism but creativity, a Nigeria of abundant not scarcity, a Nigeria unify not fraction, a Nigeria transparent not fraudulent, a Nigeria with abundant dreams, aspirations and delivery. Today, this moment, we stand on treasure of history to build the new Nigeria of our dreams.”
The Nation
