It was a day of celebration in the Nigerian oil sector during the commissioning of the Dangote Petrochemical Refinery and, remotely, the Port Harcourt Refinery, Warri Refinery, and Kaduna Refinery. After ten years since its announcement, it has been established and commissioned.
However, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, raised a worrying concern about the shortage of crude oil supply to the newly established refineries.
In the just concluded conference held yesterday in Abuja, titled ´Building Synergy for Enhanced Development in the Oil and Gas Sector,’ he elaborated on the essence of sufficient crude oil in the country for the efficiency of these refineries.
According to him, “the first target is to see how we can ramp up production, and then we can meet our target in terms of an increase in revenue and meet our obligations in the mid-stream and upstream.
He further states that “one of the challenges I am afraid of is that if we finish fixing our refineries, we will be unable to get feed stocks. It will be very embarrassing that we finish Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Warri, Dangote, and BUA, and we don’t have feed stocks.”
Will the refineries function for the people, industry, and country in toto? Will these refineries end up being part of the multi-million-dollar projects that went down the drain? Or will the Nigerian government, particularly the oil and gas sector, handle this challenge as it should?
By Chidimma NWAFOR
