In the third quarter of 2023, Nigeria imported N2.7 trillion worth of diesel, jet fuel, and premium motor spirit (PMS), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
White goods continue to be the nation’s top import while efforts to modernize the refineries have been unsuccessful.
During that time, the total amount of PMS imported was N1.9 trillion, whilst the total amount of diesel imported was N736.7 billion. N135.8 billion was spent on jet fuel.
Nigeria is still one of the top producers of crude oil, but it is also one of the few in the world that depends solely on the importation of petroleum products.
It is nonetheless concerning that Nigeria continues to import petroleum products.
Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, private investors had hurried to seek for refinery licenses some eighteen years ago. During his administration, former President Muhammadu Buhari also granted more permits.
With roughly 62 permits in all, the nation’s theoretical refining capacity would exceed 2.3 million barrels per day.
This surpasses the nation’s daily production of crude oil by almost one million barrels.
According to the licenses, the present refining capacity is 650,000 bpd at Dangote Refinery, 200,000 bpd at BUA Refinery, and 445,000 bpd total at NNPC Limited. With their current operational capacities combined, the OPAC refinery, Walter Smith refinery, Aradel refinery, and Edo refinery can process 27,000 barrels per day.
These raise the total amount of barrels produced daily by the refineries that are either operating or soon to begin production to 1.322 million. The capacity of the remaining refinery licenses, which are mostly modular refineries with unclear status, is around one million barrels per day.
Although refineries in Europe seem to be closing down and the worldwide market for petroleum products looks to be moving to Africa, particularly Nigeria, stakeholders told The Guardian that many of the persons who now hold licenses do not intend to refine crude oil.
Stakeholders told The Guardian that NNPC, the state oil corporation, was only playing to the gallery when it announced last month that 77% of the refinery’s rehabilitation work was complete.
