Fuel scarcity in Nigeria may soon become history as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu has said that Nigeria would likely begin to refine its crude in larger capacities on the back of three modular refineries that are expected to become operational next year.
According to the minister, the federal government has issued licences to 40 investors, 10 of whom have shown progress in the past few years.
“Out of the 40 licenses issued, only 10 have shown progress by submitting their programmes and putting something on the ground,” Kachikwu said at the 18th Biennial International Conference for Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) in Lagos. “By end of 2019, we are assured that three private modular refineries would come on stream.”
Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Modeccai Ladan, who was at the event and was speaking earlier, said: “As we speak, some of the big International Oil Companies (IOCs) here seated are funding gigantic researches into alternative fuels, which include the use of cheap, common algae.
“As sweet as Nigeria’s crudes are renowned to be globally, we have recently lost our most valued customers and our gas buyers are themselves now competing with us in the same market space as suppliers.”