It has been said that Nigeria is the only country that buys what it already has in abundance. With an average of 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd), Nigeria is the eight largest producer of crude oil in the world and the largest in Africa. It is, therefore, an anomaly that the country relies on importation of petroleum products to meet the demands of its populace.

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian government currently has four refineries; two in Port Harcourt, and one each in Kaduna and Warri. The refineries have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 bpd. Official figures from the NNPC in 2018 indicates that none of the refineries was operating at up to 50 per cent capacity.

In May 2018, while speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, US, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru said that the nation will achieve at least 90 per cent refining capacity by the end of 2019.

Nevertheless, even at full operating capacity, the government-owned refineries cannot convert Nigeria’s huge amount of crude oil into refined petroleum products. It is therefore, imperative that more refineries come on board to stimulate the country’s transformation from crude oil producer to exporter of petroleum product.

Both the government and private organizations are making efforts to bring new refineries on stream and these initiatives are beginning to take shape.

The upcoming refineries in Nigeria are divided into two types; Conventional Refineries and Modular Refineries

a. Conventional Refineries (Minimum of 50 bpd)
Within the past 8 years, The DPR has issued over 45 licences for private refineries. However, most of them have been revoked because the projects failed to take off after an 18-month deadline, due to political interferences, a lack of finance and technical know-how and inability to get the assurance of crude oil supply from the Federal Government.

Below are the most feasible ones at the moment:
1. Dangote Refinery, Ibeju-Lekki
The 650,000-bpd refinery, being built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is also expected to be the continent’s largest when it comes on stream in 2020.
Located at the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, it is expected it is expected to create over 4,000 direct jobs and help Nigeria save over $7.5 billion through import substitution. This is because it will help the Federal Government reduce petroleum products imports, which remains a major drawback in our economic development.

2. Petrolex Refinery, Ibefun
The second largest refinery coming on stream is the 250,000-bpd privately-owned Petrolex Refinery being built at Ibefun, Ogun State. Petrolex is owned by Segun Adebutu, son of popular lotto king; Adebutu Kesington, known as Baba Ijebu.

According to the DPR, this refinery is a conventional plant capable of producing transportation fuels PMS, HHK, AGO; heating oils’ LPFO, and petrochemicals. DPR issued a Licence to Establish in December 2017 and the project is expected to be completed by 2021.

The Petrolex refinery is being built on the company’s mega oil city, which is also home to the largest tank farm in Sub-Saharan Africa.

3. Resource Petroleum & Petrochemicals International Incorporated
Located in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, this conventional refinery with the capacity to process 100,000bpd, got its Approval to Construct (ATC) revalidated in 2017.
The firm secured bank guarantee letter for $5.5billion in January 2017. According to the DPR, construction of the refinery was to commence August, 2017. However, there are no activities at the moment.

4. Katsina Refinery, Mashi
The proposed refinery, to be located in Mashi, Katsina State is a partnership between Nigeria and the government of Niger. The 150,000-barrel capacity refinery is expected to cost over $2 billion and will be completed in 2021.
According to media reports, the project will gulp about $2 billion and is facilitated by Niger Republic, Nigeria’s neighbour to the north. The refinery is billed for completion in 2021.
The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, IKachikwu announced the proposed project in July 2018 while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the Nigerian government with the Nigerien Minister of Energy, Foumakaye Gado.

5. Bua Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd, Ntaikang, Akwa Ibom State
The project operated by Nigerian conglomerate, Bua Group, is a proposed conventional plant that will use the conversion cracking method to refine crude oil into petroleum products. It will be capable of capable of producing Polypropylene, Propane, Benzene, Butane, Gasoline, DPK, ATK, AGO, LPFO.

According to the media sources, DPR, gave the Bua group a Licence to Establish in September 2017, for the 150,000 bpd refinery. DPR says fund sourcing for the project is ongoing.

b. Modular Refineries ( Maximum: 25,000 bpd)

A modular refinery as the name implies, is a refinery whose parts or equipment are constructed in modules designed to be transported quickly and easily anywhere in the world. The components have been linked together to form an easily manageable process and they come in a variety of sizes with capacities that range from 500 to 20,000 barrels per day. Besides increasing the country’s refining capacity, the modular refinery initiative is also targeted at replacing illegal refineries in the Niger Delta.

The NNPC GMD announced in May last year that the government has given licenses to 13 firms to establish modular refineries. A total of 35 firms had expressed interest to establish the refineries but less than half of them got it. There are at least 21 Modular refineries that can realistically come onboard.

See the upcoming modular refineries attached

May PDP never find its way into our national governance. Amen.

Sai Buhari.

Atikulooted brains, how una body temperature?

Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

This wouldn't have been made possible if PDP was in power from 2015. Thank God we roundly rejected Atiku

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

The crude oil to be refined there is to come from Niger Republic and not Niger Delta of Nigeria

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

Well, it would be piped in from the source.

It would reduce the cost of transportation, instead of using trucks, just pipe the crude, and refine it up there

Plus one does not need to produce fuel to build a refinery

SillyMods:
May PDP never find its way into our national governance. Amen.

Sai Buhari.

Atikulooted brains, how una body temperature?

Well, it was under a PDP government that Dangote refinery construction commenced.

Same PDP govt also helped guarantee the loans used for financing

Easily deceived with fake promises.
Portharcourt refinery has been Shut down for over one yr now over one silly maintainance.

etrouble:


The crude oil to be refined there us to come from Niger Republic and not Niger Delta of Nigeria

Niger Republic?

Do you mean to joke or can you elaborate?

when some countries will soon stop making use of crudeoil for their locomotives, especially cars.

Awon developers building refineries

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

everyone. refineries are not only sited where there is crude oil.

Awol1:


Niger Republic?

Do you mean to joke or can you elaborate?

Niger Republic has crude oil deposits and that is where oil yo be refined in Katsina Refinery will come from. Ask Google.

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

.

So that refined products can get to the northern part of the country without necessarily tansporting product via trucks from Niger-Delta,
Port hacourt & warri refineries can't serve Nigeria alone, if Nigeria was a serious country we should be having refineries in each geopolitical zones for availability of products all year round instead of importing

theoldpretender:


Well, it was under a PDP government that Dangote refinery construction commenced.

Same PDP govt also helped guarantee the loans used for financing

what is this one saying Forget the old styles and upgraded to next level .

Story for the gods

theoldpretender:


Well, it would be piped in from the source.

It would reduce the cost of transportation, instead of using trucks, just pipe the crude, and refine it up there

Plus one does not need to produce fuel to build a refinery

why would I wanna pipe it during production stage when the final product can be transported


What kind of useless thinking is this...no wonder Naija is this way. At least movement btw pipes will lose some time during production sef. It ure simply a bigot that's looking for free oil ..and federal xter

No wahala we are waiting for them to commence operation.
The earlier they know Nigeria need these refineries to start operation as soon as possible the better for the country

The country will benefit a lot, job will be provided, Fuel price will reduce, pressure on Forex will reduce and naira will likely gain on the dollar

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

Because the decision was made by made by a northerner, to ensure the north would have its "own" refinery even if it made absolutely no economic sense. Is this really a surprise to anyone, in the land of "turn by turn" and "zoning" politics?

As long as the petroleum industry remains unregulated, the economics of building and running a refinery in Nigeria will not make any sense (assuming petrol is one of the primary items to be produced). As such, the only one of these projects that is likely to see the light of day is Dangote's, and that will only be possible because Dangote has in his usual style managed to sway politicians into giving him a sweetheart deal to allow him to extract monopoly profits from Nigerian consumers.

omohayek:
As long as the petroleum industry remains unregulated, the economics of building and running a refinery in Nigeria will not make any sense (assuming petrol is one of the primary items to be produced). As such, the only one of these projects that is likely to see the light of day is Dangote's, and that will only be possible because Dangote has in his usual style managed to sway politicians into giving him a sweetheart deal to allow him to extract monopoly profits from Nigerian consumers.

keep deceiving yourself.

Go and check out petrolex at ibefun, by 2021 it will be ready.

Chai! Naija my country, at a time and age where "Humans" are talking of abandoning fossil fuel we are here thinking of building new refineries.

How true is this twit by Ogunlesi?

Awol1:
Me, I'm just here wondering why refinery was sited in Kaduna; hundreds of kilometers away from raw materials for refining.

Who does that?

the crude oil will be supply from Niger republic

theoldpretender:


Well, it was under a PDP government that Dangote refinery construction commenced.

Same PDP govt also helped guarantee the loans used for financing

Well dis present govt too help in sourcing as well and making d foreign exchange available too sir

omohayek:
As long as the petroleum industry remains unregulated, the economics of building and running a refinery in Nigeria will not make any sense (assuming petrol is one of the primary items to be produced). As such, the only one of these projects that is likely to see the light of day is Dangote's, and that will only be possible because Dangote has in his usual style managed to sway politicians into giving him a sweetheart deal to allow him to extract monopoly profits from Nigerian consumers.

And you think a private company will want to run a loss? Well if u want ti know govt too is helping them to achieve it so carry ur negativity to your family house