(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), has revealed the Federal Government is planning to end the importation of fuel in the country by 2019.

According to Kachikwu, the current plan by the Government is for the importation of petroleum product to have reduced by 60% by December 2018.

“For the first time, I am putting so much strength in terms of what do we do with our refineries, because that ultimately is the solution. I am going around looking for investors to come in a joint venture basis to put in money into the refineries and make them work. I can authoritatively say to you that given the constraints that we face, the plan is that by December 2018 we should have reduced our importation of petroleum product by 60%. This is because we would have brought enough money to get our refineries working to the tune of about 90%,” he said.

Kachikwu noted that for the first time in 10 years, the three refineries are operational but below a 40% capacity. He added that by the time the refineries are operating at a peak capacity and the start of production by Dangote Refinery in 2019, Nigeria would be able to produce 1.4 million bpd.

The Minister said his goal was to boost the current production capacity from 2.2 million bpd to 2.6 million bbls within the next few years, PM news reports.

Anita Fatunji