The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has announced that the domestic refining of crude oil into Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly called petrol, will save the country about N367.2 billion annually.
NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, explained that the refining of crude oil into PMS in Nigeria would compress the logistics cost around petrol supply by about N17/litre, describing this as significant.
This was also confirmed by oil marketers on Wednesday, who told our correspondent that it was high time the Federal Government, through NNPC, got Nigeria’s refineries working, based on the huge benefits this would avail the country.
NNPC supplies over 60 million litres of petrol daily to keep Nigeria wet with the product. A N17/litre reduction in logistics cost would translate to N1.02 billion savings daily.
Based on this, Nigeria is going save over N367billion annually once the country starts producing petrol domestically from Dangote Refinery, as well as the country’s refineries under the management of NNPC
Kyari, while speaking during a programme on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), added that efforts were ongoing to get the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries ready in the first half of this year.
It was pointed out that the local refining of crude would not lead to a substantial decrease in petrol prices, though there would be some logistical advantages.