The Chairman of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Board of Governors for 2025 has called on Nigerian oil producers to prioritise domestic refining and value creation instead of exporting raw crude.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists Pre-Conference Workshop in Lagos, Adeyemi-Bero said the country must move away from decades of crude exports and focus on retaining value within the local economy.
He said, “We’ve been an oil and gas exporting country. We produced oil; once there was oil, we put it in a tank and sent it abroad. 40 or 50 years later, people blame Shell and others, but I don’t. They are businesses looking for feedstock for their industrialisation. If you give it to them, they’ll still take it.”
Adeyemi-Bero added that President Bola Tinubu would have reinstated fuel subsidies if the Dangote refinery were not producing fuel locally.
“Just look at the impact the Dangote refinery has had on foreign exchange and gross domestic product growth. You can imagine if that had happened 50 years ago. If the president had said, ‘I’m cancelling subsidies, and I’m not going to allow multiple exchange rates,’ and we didn’t have the option of having petroleum products in this country, I’m sure he would have changed his policies and gone back to subsidies. It’s as simple as that. Let’s not over-aggregate.
“This message is saying, We need to decline exports,” Adeyemi-Bero said.
He added that local refining and crude utilisation would also help stabilise the naira and strengthen the nation’s economy.
“If we can sell some oil in naira, let’s do it if it works for both parties. The strength of the naira is what it commands in trade. This is why nobody wants the naira outside this space, but the day you can pay for oil in naira because both parties agree, it strengthens the naira,” he said.
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