Refineries ‘to produce 10m litres of PMS daily’

Nigerian refineries have been “repositioned” to produce 10 million litres of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, daily, Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, has said. It is estimated that Nigeria consumes 35 million litres daily, which means the country will now be importing only 25 million litres to meet local needs. Although he did not give the total figure of what the refineries are currently producing, Kachikwu said a lot of work has been done to put them back in shape. He was speaking on Sunday during his visit to Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC). According to him, the mission of the visit was to ascertain the state of the refinery and identify areas of challenges for the workers at the refinery. “A lot of work has been done and a lot manpower have been put in place. But a lot still needs to be done in order to put this refinery to work continuously and reliably,” he said. He noted that a lot of progress has been made in terms of availability of fuel in the various cities and towns as the long queues are fast disappearing from the filling stations. While commending the management of KRPC for keeping the refinery working for more than a week now, he however said there was room for improvement so as to move the current production level from 1.5 million litres to 2 or 3 million litres per day. He expressed confidence that with more refineries coming on stream the fuel supply situation will continue to improve in the country. While fielding questions later from the media, the minister said the federal government was doing all it could do to ensure the subsidy on fuel is resolved without inflicting more pains on ordinary Nigerians. “Everybody is on the same page that we need to get out of it; should we sale product at a certain price or should we let free market rolling so that we can sky rocket prices,” he said. According to him, the President says that product should go for N87 per litre for now and that he has given an approval to look at market trends and make adjustment if need be. He assured that the administration was committed to ensuring adequate supply of petroleum products across the country. Kachikwu said on Friday the petrol will start selling for N85 per litre from January 1.