The Director, Petroleum Resources, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Sarki Auwalu, has stated that the downstream oil sector will in few years witness changes in view of the Federal Government’s commitment to drive business in the country.

Awalu, who spoke at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja, said the downstream industry requires new thinking to achieve the goals needed to drive the sector for growth and development.

He added that with the impending modular and mainstream refineries, local refining would be imminent thus bringing change to the downstream stream oil sector.

He noted that the government was exploring avenues of making domestic refining of crude in the country feasible.

He said: “The efforts of the DPR as a regulator to reduce import of crude can be seen in the upcoming of some refineries and modular refineries. Domestic refining in two years from now will supersede the consumption in the country. The downstream will witness unprecedented changes in few years.”

He said that government was supporting all efforts to ensure that business in these areas thrive with creating enabling environment.

He added that the closure of the nation’s borders had helped to know the actual daily consumption rate in the country.

“The ministry is also looking at alternative source of energy with the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to bring a change on energy demand.

“This year has been declared the year of Gas and we know that gas is cheaper and it will help to bring about change on the value chain,’’ he added.He noted that East West gas pipeline expansion project and the Ajaokuta Kaduna Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project were among the government’s project that would also help drive the downstream oil sector.