Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed federal government’s intention to export refined petroleum products by 2019, The Nation Online reported.

During a meeting organized in Kaduna by the Ministry of Information and Culture, Kachikwu informed that the government will build three more refineries in Kaduna, Port-harcout and Warri. As he said, they are expected to be completed by 2018, and then Nigeria will start exporting refined petroleum products for the first time since inception by 2019, Leadership wrote.

Kachikwu, who apologised to Nigerians for difficulties been experienced in terms of getting fuel in the country, said the refineries cannot work in top capacity “as long as we don’t have the foreign exchange to bring in the products, as long as the price of crude continue to slide.”

To solve the problems, the minister said, “More refineries have to be build, and the target is to build three more refineries to be located in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri taking advantage on the share facilities. And if we do this, by 2018 if all our refineries are working we will drop importation by 60%. And by 2019 if the four located refineries begin to work and am sure it will, we will actually begin to export petroleum product for the first time in this country,” said Kachikwu.