The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) yesterday said crude oil and condensate production hit 1.8 million barrels per day.
He recalled that it was in the neighborhood of 1mbopd when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in 2023.
“That is why today we are very proud to say that the oil state is green. We recall that when the president came on board, you know, in 2023, we were barely doing about a million barrels.
“Today we are doing about 1.8 million barrels of fossil fuel,” he said.
The minister made the disclosure in Abuja during the “NMDPRA / S&P Global Commodity Insights Conference on West African Refined Fuel Market.”
He said the country will keep celebrating President of Dangote Refinery, Alhaji Aliko Dangote for owning the largest plant in the world.
He downplayed the energy transition call, stressing fossil fuel will continue to account for 50 per cent of global energy mix even in the next 50 years.
He urged the African continent to intensify efforts at refining its crude oil in order to retain sufficient revenue from Hydrocarbon instead of losing it to refiners offshore.
Lokpobiri said, “That is 80% more than anybody will ever see. But the truth of it is that we also import. What we produce outside the continent where it is refined and then we import it back to the continent.
“That means a huge reduction in terms of value retention in the continent.”
He recalled that President Tinubu phased out petrol subsidy in order to encourage the development of domestic refineries.
Lokpobiri said, “One of the major reasons why, you know, subsidies were removed was to pre-pandemic growth. The government was, you know, going to continue to import products and subsidize them. This type of growth.”
In his welcome address, NMDPRA Chief Executive, Engr Farouk Ahmed said the historic event which was organized by the NMDPRA through a strategic partnership with S&P Global to establish the pathway towards creating an African reference market for refined petroleum products.
He was delighted by the quality of the participants that have registered to attend the 2-day strategic engagement planned to review, adopt and implement frameworks for achieving this shared vision.
He said despite being a significant producer of hydrocarbon resources, an important consumer of refined petroleum products and a growing refining hub, West Africa continues to depend on posted prices of global reference markets such as Northwest Europe (NWE), US Gulf Coast, Mediterranean, Singapore, Arab Gulf etc. for all its trading activities.
Ahmed said while these benchmarks, are globally accepted, often they do not reflect the unique supply chain peculiarities, market dynamics, and economic realities of the African continent.
He said a regional pricing benchmark that promotes price discovery, transparency, deepened market development and enhanced availability of energy has then become a strategic objective that requires the collaborative action of all the stakeholders that are major players in this market.
He said establishing a regional pricing reference point would facilitate: growth of trading of petroleum products in the region.
He added that it will lead to the establishment of additional storage and supply infrastructures to accommodate the growing volumes of trading activities.
The NMDPRA boss said it will result in real-time pricing data that is reflective of the peculiarities of the West African market fundamentals.
According to him, it will attract downstream investments through various Trade Zones and digital market platforms.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Group Chief Executive Officer Engr Bashir Bayo Ojulari said the theme was very timing for defining the imperatives for the continent’s future, energy self-determination, industrial integration, and shared prosperity.
He said the event was convened as an important point in global energy history where the imperatives of energy transition, supply security, and African demographic and economic momentum combine.
Ojulari said according to the International Energy Agency, global energy demand will rise by over 25% by 2040, with Africa contributing significantly to both demand and population growth.
Continuing, he said, “Meanwhile, over 80% of current global energy use remain fossil fuels. There are not conflicting facts. They are coexisting truths, and they demand that Africa pause its own just transition, one that is pragmatic, based, and anchored on our unique realities.
“The refining paradox of our strategic opportunity. Today, Africa exports a bulk of its crude oil for import-defined products at a significant premium.
“This structural asymmetry depletes value, suppresses industrialization, heightens supply vulnerabilities, and compromises energy sovereignty.
The vision of an African refining hub is therefore not an aspiration. It is essential. But vision without execution is hallucination.
“Without execution, we must confront structural bottlenecks, including chronic underinvestment in refining and mixing infrastructure, fragmented and often contradictory regulatory frameworks, policy inconsistency that stalls investment, skills gap, and limited local development.”
