Four oil refineries will resume production in July, Ohi Alegbe, spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said the two refineries in Port Harcout would begin operations after turnaround maintenance, followed by those in Warri and Kaduna. “Even when the refineries work at full capacity, they can only produce around 19 million litres of petrol per day,” he said.

According to him, there will still be a shortfall of about 21 million litres, pointing out that Nigeria consumes about 40 million litres of petrol per day. Nigeria, one of Africa’s top two oil producers, is forced to import most of its petrol products due to its ailing refinery system, which generally runs well below capacity, sometimes at just 20 percent, due to neglect and pipeline sabotage.

Major cities in Nigeria are recovering from fuel shortage despite the end of the strike by fuel marketers who agreed to distribute fuel brought in by NNPC.

Alegbe said the turnaround maintenance for the four refineries had commenced in November last year.