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| Kachikwu |
Minister of State for Petroleum
Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said yesterday that the Federal Government will build three
refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri to end fuel crisis permanently.
He said when completed as
planned by 2018, Nigeria will, for the first time, start exporting refined
petroleum products. He also unveiled the government’s plan to provide every
household with free gas cylinder before the end of next year, to stop
dependence on kerosene for cooking.
The minister, who is also the
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
spoke at a town hall meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Information
in Kaduna. The minister said the Federal Government would in the next few days
unveil a new policy to address fuel subsidy.
“We are coming up with a policy
in the next few days that will allow us develop the price modulation that
allows us swing our price along with international pricing. We are now
transiting into fuel modulating pricing because we do not have sufficient
foreign exchange to continue fuel importation we have been doing. Therefore,
NNPC has to produce about 100 per cent of the product that is the cause of the
scarcity. The Federal Government has struggled to offset about N600 billion
subsidy balance when the administration came into power.”