The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has disclosed that the country will export Premium Motor Spirit by mid-2023 as local refining capacity is set to jump to 1.1 million barrels per day.
Group Chief Executive Officer of the commercialised entity, Mele Kyari, told the international community virtually at the 13th Global UAE Energy Forum that the country will also increase crude oil production to 2.2 million barrels per day.
According to Kyari, “Security challenges around oil operations in the country became very manifest early on in 2022 and we took steps to bring back production, which has paid off. In July, net crude oil output, excluding condensates, had dropped to one million barrels, the lowest in the history of our industry. By the end of December, production was 1.5mbd and the trajectory for the end of this year, including condensates, is 1.8mbd to 2.2mbd,” Kyari said.
He explained that, in terms of product, when the country gets its refinery capacities back by mid-year, the combined national capacity will be around 1.1 million barrels, so the country will have a net difference that will have to be exported as that exceeds domestic requirements.
He noted that the line of sight around new production coming online was limited because of the general lack of investment and financial constraints, therefore, significant recovery in supply over the next two years would be elusive.
Nigeria’s 2023 budget was pegged on a crude oil benchmark price of $75 per barrel.
