As the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu brace up to achieve the December deadline to get its refineries working, data from the World Energy 2023 report showed that the country’s crude oil refining output dropped by 92 per cent in 10 years.

The report showed that output from the nation’s four refineries fell from 92,000 barrels per day in 2012 to just 6,000 in 2022. The figure represents a 92 per cent drop in production capacity.

The data was collected from the report published in the 72nd edition of Energy Institute

The report aligned with the latest report from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Annual Statistical Bulletin 2023, which also revealed that the country’s crude oil refining capacity fell from 33,000 bpd in 2018 to 6,000 bpd in 2022, representing about an 81 per cent drop in production output.

The country’s continued importation of refined petroleum products has been criticized despite boasting four government-owned refineries.

The refineries— two in Port Harcourt and one each in Warri and Kaduna, have a combined capacity to process around 4.45 million barrels of crude oil daily

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, had said in August that the Port Harcourt plant would eventually begin operations by the end of this year after several delays.

Similarly, The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, confirmed that the Port Harcourt refinery will take off in December 2023.

He said this while meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, on Thursday last week

I can confirm to you that by the end of December this year, we will start the Port Harcourt refinery; early in the first quarter of 2024, we will begin the Warri refinery, and by the end of 2024, the Kaduna refinery will come into operation.

“We will no longer discuss fuel importation by the end of 2024. I am very optimistic that this will crystallize,” he said