The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri has expressed fear that supply of crude to Dangote and other local refineries may suffer a setback.
Lokpobiri made this known at the just concluded Energy and Labour Summit 2024 organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria in Abuja.
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According to Lokpobiri, except production is ramped up, supply of crude to Dangote and other local refineries may suffer a setback.
He said: “Our ambition is to ramp up production. It is only when we ramp on production that the midstream and the downstream can also be successful. You know we resolve at the Federal Executive Council to sell crude to local refineries – Dangote and the other refineries that are refining products for local consumption.
“But the bigger challenge is whether we have enough quantity to be able to supply them because of certain things that happened before we came. You will agree with me that when I became minister one year ago, we were doing barely about a million barrels, but today we’re doing 1.7mbpd approximately, inclusive of condensate,”.
He added, “Supporting local refining is the way to go. We can look for investors to explore and ring out this crude, so I will be able to meet both our domestic obligation and also export some to be able to raise more dollars and meet our obligations.
“We are committed to ensuring we support local refineries with all the feed-stock. If you must supply refineries in Nigeria and you don’t have the crude to supply, it remains something that is written beautifully in a law.”
He stated that the Federal Government would promote healthy competition by treating both small and large refiners fairly.
