From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The Federal Government has issued 47 Licenses to Establish (LTE) and 30 Licenses to Construct (LTC) refineries in one year.

The move, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)  marks a significant step towards enhancing Nigeria’s refining capacity and boosting petroleum products availability.

  Its Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed, disclosed this during the sixth Meet-the-Press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, adding that the 47 issues licenses have a combined refining capacity of nearly three million barrels per day (bpd).

    Detailing the breakdown of the licenses, Ahmed stated: “We have issued 47 LTE translating to 1.75 million bpd and 30 LTC translating to 1.23 million bpd. Currently, only four plants hold LTC with a steady output of 27,000 bpd.”

Giving a further breakdown, Ahmed said the LTC projects included  five which were at the commissioning or construction stage, including the Dangote Petroleum Refinery with a capacity of 650,000 bpd while other smaller projects include; AIPCC Energy’s 30,000 bpd plant and Waltersmith’s second train with a capacity of 5,000 bpd.

Ahmed also highlighted the current state of refining operations in Nigeria, saying six licensed private refineries and four public ones are producing a total of 1.12 million bpd. Other private plants contribute 679,500 bpd, led by Dangote’s single-train plant with a refining capacity of 650,000 bpd.

   Other modular refineries include; Aradel (11,000 bpd), OPAC (10,000 bpd), Waltersmith (5,000 bpd), Duport Midstream Limited (2,500 bpd), and Edo Refining and Petrochemicals Company Limited (1,000 bpd).

He explained further that publicly owned facilities operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited add another 445,000 bpd from the refurbished plants in Port Harcourt (150,000 bpd), Warri (125,000 bpd), Kaduna (110,000 bpd), and the old Port Harcourt plant (60,000 bpd).

“These developments underline our commitment to reducing dependency on imported refined products.”

He added that ongoing licensing efforts aimed at expanding domestic refining capacity were ongoing to further support economic growth through job creation and energy security.

The NMDPRA’s recent licensing activities also include approvals for modular refineries in Edo, Delta, and Abia states, expected to add an additional 140,000 bpd upon completion.