A review of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that Nigeria did not produce a single drop of petrol locally in the whole of 2023 fiscal year.
The details showed that zero litre of Petrol was refined between January and December of the year.
This is despite the fact that Nigeria has its own refineries (which are non-functional).
They are namely the Port-Harcourt refinery, Kaduna refinery and Warri refinery.
Many promises of the government including setting dates for when the refineries would commence operations have failed, with a most recent promise that Port-Harcourt refinery will commence operations in August, 2024, failing.
This development comes even as Nigeria imported 20.2 billion litres of petrol in the 2023 fiscal year.
This detail is broken into two billion litres in January, 1.9 billion in February, 2.2 billion in March, 1.9 billion in April, 2 billion in May, 1.6 billion in June, 1.4 billion in July, 1 billion in August, 1.2 billion in September, 1.1 billion in October, 1.5 billion in November and 1.8 billion in December.
Nigeria has been plagued with importation of petroleum in the absence of state-owned refineries, a development that worsens the price of available fuel and puts citizens on the edge.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN SAHARA REPORTERS