Nigeria tries again to end fuel imports
Africa’s biggest oil producer is trying to get its refineries working in an attempt to wean itself off imported fuel. Yet again.
Over the past 12 years, Nigeria tried and failed four times to crank up its ageing and unprofitable crude-processing plants. Now the state-run energy company is giving it another shot — a move that, if successful, could end the nation’s reliance on fuel imports. However, the track record means there is scepticism about the latest effort.
“For our refineries that have not been properly maintained for years, it might be easier to build a new one,” said Cheta Nwanze, head of research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based risk advisory.
Nigeria imports more than 90% of products such as petrol and diesel, swapping its prized export: crude.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) operates four refineries that have long run at a fraction of their capacity. The newest is almost four decades old. By successfully making its own fuels, Nigeria would stop being reliant on traders bringing supplies on tankers from thousands of miles away, with all the extra costs that entails.
Mele Kyari, the newly appointed group MD of NNPC, says this time will be different.
He has made fixing the plants a main part of his agenda since taking the helm of the company in July and says President Muhammadu Buhari is the country’s first leader in years to be committed to the revamp. Kyari has revived a target to upgrade the plants and end fuel imports by 2023, after the company missed a previous goal for the end of 2019.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the overhaul should be successful this time because Nigeria is asking the owners of the refinery technology to get more involved in the work. Once the plants are operational, they will be run by external people, he said.
HE SAYS PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI IS THE COUNTRY’S FIRST LEADER IN YEARS TO BE COMMITTED TO THE REVAMP
The work is scheduled to begin in January, first on the Port Harcourt complex, a tworefinery facility with the capacity to process 210,000 barrels of crude a day.
Some of Nigeria’s challenges to become more self-sufficient in fuel may soon be alleviated for another reason. In the next few years, a new, privately owned 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery is due to come online. In theory, it could meet all of the country’s fuel needs and have enough left over for exports.
The plant is being built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and is not owned by the Nigerian state. That means that the country would have to pay market prices — similar to those charged by traders — for the fuel the refinery churns out.
The scepticism that state-run plants can return to full operation stems from NNPC’s previous attempts. Efforts to overhaul its refining industry — in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016 — all failed to work out. The state energy company has to compete with other domestic demands for funding.
Ayodele Oni, chair of the energy and natural resources practice at Bloomfield Law in Lagos, said: “The money to comprehensively fix the refineries is simply not there.”
NNPC is talking to the African Export-Import Bank and other financial institutions to fund the revamp.