The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mallam Mele Kyari at the recent tour of Dangote Petroleum Refinery said the government was working to ensure that refineries came on stream as soon as possible to ensure the availability of the stock year round.
He spoke when he toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Fertiliser company famed to be eight times size of Victoria Island with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
Responding to a question on whether there is a veiled competition between NNPC and Dangote Refinery, Kyari said: “lt is important to state that we are not competing with Dangote Refineries, rather we are complementing each other to make Nigeria a net exporter of refined petroleum products and you can’t do this until you have complementary activities that involved all stakeholders in the sector”.
According to him, what they are doing with the refineries is to make them work so that by the time Dangote refineries come up, it will have a full accompaniment of NNPC refineries also to complete each other for the good of the country.
The NNPC boss said it would enable the country to be a net exporter of gasoline and other associated products.
He said: “Not only that, it is going to guarantee products security for our nation. As President of Dangote has said, Nigeria will now be the real supplier of products to Africa markets.’’
Earlier, Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Projects & Portfolio Development Mr Edwin Devakumar said the Refinery will not only serve local demands which stand at 53 million litres daily but also set for export to Europe and other parts of the world.
He said gas will be trapped for electricity which is a sore point for manufacturers in addition to other by -products of the refinery used in the petrochemical industry to drive industrialisation..
He also said that as a deliberate policy the complexity of the refinery is to ensure surplus revenue generation for the country as the company is worth over $12 billion.
Edwin further revealed that over 800 engineers have been trained in India and employed by the organisation.
President Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote also appealed to government to provide an enabling environment for organisations like his to thrive.
He said the refinery will produce Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosine and aviation jet that would be surplus for export. Dangote further said:
We believe in Nigeria and if we don’t do it, nobody will come and do it for us. You know Nigeria has population growth of three percent
annually and there is need for Nigeria to feed itself and the entire Africa market, that’s why we went for this massive investment”, he added.
SOURCE: The Nation Nigeria