The Federal Government at the weekend declared plans to get the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria to refine 50 per cent of their productions volume in-country.
Minister of state for petroleum resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who revealed this, added that the 50 per cent in-country refining target for OICs would be met by 2023.
“We have no option or we will consistently stay in the abyss of lack of processing while we export all the raw materials,” Kachikwu said at the groundbreaking of WalterSmith refinery in Imo state, maintaining that a policy to require operating companies to refine locally at least 20 percent of the crude oil they produce, with the percentage graduating to 50 percent in the next five years.
Explaining that the Federal Government’s policy on modular refineries is an integral part of the 14-point agenda for reducing militancy in the Niger Delta region, Kachikwu added that the plan was to set up modular refineries in oil producing communities and use them to create jobs and absorb the militants.
“We would take some of the good skills sets they have, polish them and put them into the system,” the minister added.
He informed that 10 of the 38 licensed modular refineries had made appreciable progress in the development of their projects and the first one is expected to deliver products between December 2018/January 2019.
“From modular refineries, we will be able to process about 200,000 barrels of crude and put them into the system.”
