The Covid-19 pandemic and other economic challenges did not distract the petroleum resources ministry from its reform agenda.
When President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Timipre Sylva, a former governor of Bayelsa State, as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources in late 2019, the country’s petroleum industry was in a deplorable state.
Daily oil production had fallen from 2.3 million barrels projected in the year’s budget to about 1.81 million barrels and high production cost was a serious headache. Also, a global economic downturn was making investment decisions on new projects difficult.
The Coronavirus pandemic further unsettled the global economy, in particular of commodities exporting economies like Nigeria after crude oil prices crashed to unprecedented levels.
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In 2018, the ministry unveiled the Refinery Rehabilitation Roadmap aimed at boosting local refining capacity and transforming Nigeria into a net exporter of petroleum products.
Under the roadmap, the refineries would be rehabilitated, Greenfield refineries developed and modular refining co-located.
Pursuant to the Roadmap, the ministry is collaborating with the private sector to increase domestic refining capacity by issuing five licenses and permits for refineries with combine refining capacity of over 623,000 barrels of oil per day to be completed latest by 2021.
They include the over 600,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Refinery; the 10,000 BPD Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Refinery (NDPR); the 7000 BP OPAC Refinery; the 5,000 BPD Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited and the 1,000 BPD Edo Refinery.
Although the COVID-19 crisis has negatively impacted the Dangote Refinery project, forcing some suppliers involved in the construction contract to declare force majeure on some of the contracts, the ministry has continued to encourage work on the project.
