The country's new oil minister stated on Friday that Nigeria intends to reactivate four state-owned oil refineriesoperating by the end of the following year, with the southern Port Harcourt plant possibly beginning operations as early as December.

New Oil Minister Aims For Operational Revival By Next Year

Late in the previous year, the government made the announcement that it anticipates the Port Harcourt refinery will start processing crude oil by the end of the year 2022.

Despite this, a series of oil ministers and executives from NNPC Ltd. have detailed a variety of ideas, none of which have been successful in resuming operations at the refineries, upgrading or expanding them.

Today, Heineken Lokpobiri, who only last week resumed his duties as Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum, went to the two-unit 210,000 Port Harcourt refinery to inspect the ongoing restoration.

He was there since he was the first person to visit the facility since he returned to his position.

"From what we have seen here today, Port Harcourt refinery will come on board by the end of the year," he said, adding that two other facilities in Warri and Kaduna will start processing crude between the first quarter and end of 2024.

According to Lokpobiri:

Despite having the largest oil reserves on the African continent and being the leading oil producer on the continent, Nigeria must import almost all of the refined petroleum that it needs because of its limited production capacity and inadequate maintenance. Nigeria is the country that has the most oil in its reserves.

Since a few years ago, the state has been forced to cease operations at four deteriorating refineries that have a combined capacity of 4450,000 barrels per day. These refineries are controlled by the state.

One of these refineries is the Kaduna facility, which is located in the north and has a capacity of 110,000 barrels per day. Additionally, there are three units in the oil-rich Niger Delta, one of which is the Warri refinery, which has a capacity of 125,000 barrels per day.

All of these refineries combined have a total capacity of 1,250,000 barrels per day.

According to Offshore Technology, the fact that Nigeria is one of the oil-producing nations on the continent lends credence to this aspiration. At the moment, Nigeria imports the majority of its refined petroleum due to its limited production capability, therefore this ambition is backed by the fact that Nigeria exists.

Nigeria sets to revamp four state oil refineries by 2024 Petroleum Minister

The Port Harcourt refinery is currently undergoing an upgrade with a cost of $1.5 billion as a result of the awarding of the contract to carry out the work in 2021 to the Italian company Tecnimont.

According to statements made by the oil ministry in April of the previous year, the timeline for the completion of the reconstruction is projected to take forty-four months.

The wealthiest person in Africa, Aliko Dangote, is currently in the midst of building a refinery that will have the ability to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil every single day. At this point, the government is pinning its hopes on being able to wean itself off of petroleum imports.