Adewale Sanyaolu and Judex Okoro, Calabar 

To meet its refined petrol  products needs, Nigeria will by 2025, require a refining capacity of 1.52 million barrels per day (bpd), Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Maikanti Baru, has said.

Baru stated this at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum (OLEF) 2019 with the theme, “Energy Security and Sustainable Development in Nigeria: The Way Forward”, held in Abuja last week.

He explained that the capacity requirement includes NNPC’s current nameplate capacity of 445,000bpd for Warri, Port Harcourt, Kaduna refineries and Dangote Refinery’s 650,000bpd. This leaves a shortfall of 427,000bpd, which is equivalent of 20 million litres of PMS per day. 

But in order to address the shortfall in petrol demand, he said NNPC was adding 215,000bpd of refining capacity through private sector driven co-location at existing facilities in Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.

He further disclosed that NNPC, through its new initiative of establishing condensate refineries with private sector participation, was also providing clusters for in-country refining capacity totalling about 250,000bpd, which closes the petrol supply-demand gap and creates positive margins to the investors.  

According to him, these improved in-country refining capacity plan ensures Nigeria’s domestic crude oil utilisation of up to 66 per cent with its attendant local manufacturing multiplier effect from associated industries such as petrochemicals for plastics and polymers used in everything from computers, medical equipment, wind turbines, solar panels to cosmetics.

Others are  asphalt for building roads, toluene for producing paint, ingredient for textiles, clothing and carpets, foams for bedding and furniture, medicines for health, fertilisers for agriculture, lubricants for vehicles and machinery.

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Meanwhile, a Niger Delta-based community company, Elano Investments Limited, has declared N5.2 billion as dividend for the year ended March 31, 2018. 

Elano manages about five host communities’ 7.5 per cent equity dividend from Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. 

Out of the said amount declared, the company doled out the sum of N2.3 billion to the host communities of Eleme in line with the Federal Government agreement as regards profit sharing. 

Speaking at the weekend in Calabar during the 6th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company, the Chairman, Board of Directors of Elano Investments, Chief Gomba Okanje, said the company has done tremendously well for the host communities in the health and educational sectors.

Okanje disclosed that the company is entering a stage of diversification and consolidation to ensure the achievement of sustainable development of host communities through its programmes in infrastructure, housing and security. 

“Our health insurance programme has a portfolio of 6,600 beneficiaries from all our host communities and has saved many lives through critical surgical procedures such as caesarean deliveries, regular preventive medicine and hospitalisations.

“Our educational programme offered more than 200 bursary awards to students in tertiary institutions all over the country and has assisted many recipients to earn their academic qualifications. Besides, plans are on to resume their postgraduate scholarship and skill acquisition programmes for deserving and qualified members of their host communities in the years to come.”

He enjoined the host communities to continue to maintain peace as investors are very cautious of security in the environment they operate. According to him, the AGM resolved that the host communities, from henceforth, would submit their own audited accounts in the spirit of openness and transparency.