The country’s recently opened Dangote Petrochemical Refinery, Port Harcourt Refinery, Warri Refinery, and modular refineries may not have access to enough crude oil locally to produce petroleum products, according to State Petroleum Resources (Oil) Minister, Heineken Lokpobiri.
According to The PUNCH, he said this is only avoidable if concerted efforts are made to increase investments and crude production in the sector.
According to Lokpobiri, the refineries would run out of feedstock to produce enough oil, even for domestic use, unless the nation increased output by leasing its oil wells to suitable investors.
The Dangote refinery said on January 12 that it had started producing aviation fuel and diesel. The Dangote refinery, a division of Dangote Industries Limited, is a crude oil refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and is situated in the Dangote Industries Free Zone in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
It was reported in January that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had sent six million barrels of crude oil to the plant.
However, as the NNPCL is still importing fuel with little foreign exchange, both the big and independent merchants stated they had not yet received refined goods from any of the refineries.
Speaking on Tuesday at the seventh Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, the minister estimated that the government-owned refineries would use around 450,000 barrels of crude oil each day, while the Dangote refinery alone would require up to 650,000 barrels.
“The Dangote Refinery requires around 650,000 barrels per day, and as we renovate our government-owned refineries, we may require an additional 400,000 barrels per day. A few modular refineries are on the horizon. Overall, in order to ensure energy security and be able to fulfil our domestic demands, we must increase output,” according to Lopkobiri.
He stated that the suggested switch from fossil fuel to petrol would likewise be an illusion unless the country made the necessary expenditures.
“We need to figure out how to solve our FX issue. Nigeria doesn’t require fuel imports. We ought to allocate our limited foreign exchange to other economic areas. I am aware that the import of refined oil products accounts for the majority of our foreign exchange. However, at this time, we are renovating our own refineries, which by the end of this year will be fully operational.
“The first phase of the Port Harcourt refinery has begun; the Warri refinery will soon be finished in the next two months; Kaduna will come; this year, everything will be restored. We won’t be able to obtain feedstock even after rehabilitation if we don’t increase output and don’t secure the necessary funding,” he said.
“We must discover what other regions have done that we have not in order to achieve economic development for their countries. Your reserves won’t translate into anything if they are kept beneath and never brought to the surface.”
