The Group Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, has said that based on emerging indicators in the energy and gas sector, Nigeria will be a net exporter of petroleum by December.
Kyari made this known on Monday at the National Assembly when stakeholders of the nation’s economy including the Ministers of Finance, Wale Edun; Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu; Minister of State Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; and the Governor of the Central Bank, Olayemi Cardoso, met with the Senate Committee on Finance led by Senator Sani Musa ( APC Niger East).
The stakeholders further gave assurance that the ailing economy is getting revitalised based on emerging indicators.
The indicators, according to Kyari, are the Port Harcourt Refinery which will start production early next month, which will be followed by the one in Warri months after, and the Kaduna refinery latest by December this year.
He added that in a few months, the oil production level for the country will hit 2 million barrels per day as all enablement towards that has already been put in place.
He said, “Mr. Chairman and members of the Joint Committee. Let me just confirm that NNPCL and the oil and gas industry are very critical in bringing a turnaround in our current economic situation, and we understand the importance of this. We are taking every step that is practical for us to achieve this..
“We have already seen growth in our oil and gas production because of certain actions that Mr. President personally took, and also the very mere truth that we have also declared war on production activities, and this is yielding the required results.
“The combination of these two has now seen us restoring production in our country, and we believe that, as the Honorable Minister has said, we will soon hit the target of 2 million barrels of oil production per day.”
Peoplesmind