By Iloaze Blessed-Odidi

ABUJA—The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said yesterday that Nigeria would start exporting refined petroleum products in three years. Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, disclosed this on the sidelines of an ongoing NNPC Roadshow for investors in the country’s oil and gas sector in China.

‘’Nigeria’s daily oil production which surged back to 1.9 million barrels after dipping to about 1.4 million per day between May and June, would meet up to about 2.2 million barrels per day by July, after the Forcados terminal must have been repaired.

‘’In the next three years, Nigeria will start exporting refined petroleum products again, after all the refineries and the one being built by Dangote Group come on full steam,’’ he told cable news network, CNN, in an interview. He said for petroleum products to be in proper speculation, producers must understand the rules of production discipline, engagement and unity.

Kachikwu said after signing a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, for investment of about $8 billion with Chinese investors, the deals waiting to be executed would not be less than $40 billion. Nigeria currently imports virtually all the premium motor spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol, consumed by Nigerians daily.

This led to a subsidy regime that became a policy rooted in deep-seated corruption , which culminated in acute fuel scarcity, that eventually gave rise to liberalisation of prices by the present government.