Nigeria’s local refinery owners, including the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, claim they can end the country’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products within 18 months, provided the Federal Government collaborates with and supports their plans.
The refiners, who spoke under the aegis of the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria, said there are other refineries at different stages of completion to join the 650,000-capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
In an interview, CORAN Publicity Secretary, Eche Idoko, told The PUNCH that the Dangote refinery and others in the country can satisfy the fuel needs of the nation.
Idoko’s comment is coming at a time when the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, said the country would not stop fuel importation to break the Dangote monopoly and ensure energy security.
The CORAN official argued that there was no way the government would tackle rising inflation if it did not address the high cost of fuel, especially by working with the local refiners.
“You can’t tackle inflation if you don’t address the pump price of petroleum products. You cannot say you have a plan to step down inflation and you are not involving the key sectors like the refineries; you have to involve us, let’s work together.
And CORAN is saying that, in 18 months, if the Nigerian government will work with our programmes and plans, in 18 months, we can stop the importation of petroleum products completely. There are refineries in different stages of completion. In 18 months, we can produce what Nigeria will consume,” he stated.
Idoko said Nigeria has enough crude oil to feed Dangote and other refineries but noted that crude theft has been the major challenge to the upstream oil sector.
“We have the crude oil to feed these refineries and more fields are being licensed by the day. So, there will be crude to feed the refineries. Our production figure is dropping because of the crude that is being stolen daily.
“When we have local refineries, crude theft will be reduced. People steal crude through the pipelines and most of the refineries are located close to some of these fields. What this does is that the crude oil producers will no longer need to pump their crude through the pipelines to the terminal for export.
