By ISAIAH BENJAMIN, By Midat Joseph
The federal government yesterday disclosed plans to build three additional refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt.
Minister
of State for Petroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu who dropped the hint at a town
hall meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and
Culture, in Kaduna also disclosed federal government’s intention to
export petroleum product by the year 2019.
According to him, the
federal government will provide free gas cylinders to every Nigerian
which will be roll out next year with the aim of pulling Nigerians away
from the use of kerosene.
Kachikwu who apologised to Nigerians
for difficulties been experienced in terms of getting fuel in the
country, said the refineries cannot work in top capacity “as long as we
don’t have the foreign exchange to bring in the products, as long as the
price of crude continue to slide.”
To solve the problems, the
minister said, “More refineries have to be build, and the target is to
build three more refineries to be located in Kaduna, Port Harcourt 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 per cent. And by 2019 if the four located refineries begin to
work and am sure it will, we will actually begin to export petroleum
product for the first time in this country,” said Kachikwu.
For
the upstream sector where production has been climbing down, Kachikwu
said, “Our target is to move production up to 2.3million barrel, but I
am personally committed to 2.5 million barrel.”
Expressing
confidence on ending the perennial fuel shortages, Kachikwu said, “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 where
we can deliver a country we can all be proud of.”
Recalling the
challenges he met on the ground, the minister said, “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 this 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.
“Do,
I want to see the problems continue? No. There is a lot of improvement
but there is a lot of work required. And in the next three months I
assure you will see great improvement in terms of fuel supply.
“Most important, we need to begin to develop 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,” he added.
Speaking
further, the minister wondered why there was fuel queues in Kaduna,
having supplied 80 truck loads of petroleum product to Kaduna in the
last four days.
http://www.leadership.ng/news/525535/fg-set-build-3-refineries
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