In what will no doubt be a pleasant development to fuel users, Nigeria plans to spend a total of $57.6 billion to expand its crude oil refining capacity between now and 2022.
The oil refining investment is expected to increase Nigeria’s refining capacity by 2.003 million barrels per day (bpd) when it is done, a leading global energy intelligence firm, Global Data, has disclosed.
According to a report released by the firm, global refining capacity is expected to grow by 15.1 percent between 2018 and 2022, with global crude refining capacity expected to grow 117 million bpd by 2022.
The report disclosed that Asia would lead the globe with the highest crude refining capacity of 5.4 million barrels per day in 2022, followed by Africa and the Middle East, with 3.2 million barrels per day and 2.7 million barrels per day, respectively.
On capital expenditure, Global Data further said that Asia would again lead the rest of the world with $194.9 billion for new-build refineries, followed by Africa and the Middle East, with $126.6 billion and $87.1 billion, respectively.
Other countries that will make similar investments in expanding their refining capacites are China, which the report said topped the list with a planned investment of $67.3 billion to achieve a refining capacity of 3.12 million barrels per day. The investment is for 10 new-build refineries scheduled for completion by 2022.
The other countries are Kuwait with an estimated $7.5 billion investment to achieve 615,000 barrels per day of crude refining capacity by 2022; as well as Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia.
 It would be recalled that Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, had earlier hinted that two out of the 38 modular refineries projects approved by the government would be inaugurated in December this year, to be located in Delta and Rivers States, to boost fuel supply in the country.
