The Nigerian government was targeting 2019 to end fuel importation in the country, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said Monday.

Kachikwu disclosed this when he was speaking at an interactive session on removal of fuel subsidy organized by Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub.

"I can authoritatively say to you that given the constraints that we face, the plan is that by December 2018 we should have reduced our importation of petroleum product by 60 percent," he added.

"I am going around looking for investors to come in a joint venture basis to put in money into the refineries and make them work," the minister told his audience.

"This is because we would have brought enough money to get our refineries working to the tune of about 90 percent," he said.

According to him, for the first time in 10 years, the three refineries are working but at less than 40 percent capacity.

He said by the time the refineries were working at optimal capacity and the commencement of production by Dangote Refinery in 2019, Nigeria would be able to refine 1.4 million barrels per day.

Kachikwu said his desire was to increase the current production capacity from 2.2 million barrels per day to 2.6 million barrels within the next few years.

The minister said the subsidy regime was no longer sustainable because of the various fraudulent practices by oil marketers and other players in the sector.

Kachikwu said the liberalization of the sector would encourage competition and bring the price of fuel down within the next few months.

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