By Francis Ogwo
President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow Tuesday November 24th, commission a 5,000 Barrels Per Day (BPD) refinery in Ibigwe Field, Ohaji Egbema LGA, Imo State.
This was made public in a release signed by Engineer Simbi Kesiye Wabote on Monday.
The project which is a joint project of Waltersmith Ltd and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on behalf of the Federal Government will also have the President break ground for the second phase of another 45,000bpd.
The event which is expected to be done virtual according to KaftanPost sources will be done by 10 am and would have the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Silva, as Special Guest.
Recall that there are currently five refineries in Nigeria of which four plants are owned by the Nigerian Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), while the fifth is owned and operated by Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR).
According to reports from Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA, in 2019, Nigeria spent a whopping N3trillion importing about 18 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol.
Nigeria’s total petroleum refining capacity is 445,000 barrels (70,700 m³) per day, however, only 240,000 barrels (38,000 m³) per day was allotted during the 1990s.
Subsequently, crude oil production for refineries was reduced further to as little as 75,000 barrels (11,900 m³) per day during the regime of General Sani Abacha.
Recently, there has been controversies regarding how Nigeria a net exporter in times past descended to the unenviable depth of importing refined petroleum products from its arid and landlocked northern neighbour, Niger Republic.
Experts however say the increment in the number of refineries in the country and the maintenance of the current refineries which are in poor state would definitely give the petroleum sector a boost.
