The Chairman of the OPEC Board of Governors for 2025 has called on local oil producers to focus on domestic refining and value creation rather than exporting raw crude
The Chairman of the OPEC Board Adeyemi-Bero, gave the advised while speaking at the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists Pre-Conference Workshop in Lagos.
According to him the country must move away from decades of crude exports and focus on retaining value within the local economy.
“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, who also doubles as the CEO of First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company, said, Nigeria had a responsibility to develop its energy resources locally and use them to drive industrial growth, rather than depend on foreign markets.
He noted that President Bola Tinubu would have returned fuel subsidies if the Dangote refinery had not been there to produce 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.”
According to him, this message is saying that producers need to decline exports
“If you go to Saudi Arabia today, if you go to the UAE, if you go to Qatar, if you go to Malaysia, if you go to Brazil, they are expanding the value chain and keeping it in their space. Now, one man built a refinery; we fought him, we argued with him. But the impact of that Dangote refinery on our GDP and foreign exchange is big.”
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.
He noted that Nigeria must deliberately reduce its dependence on exports and focus on value creation to avoid future economic decline.
“We need to decline exports. All of us like to sell, but the person that will buy from us will be willing to buy at the right price. ‘I’m investing in dollars, so don’t come and buy in naira. If I invest in dollars, then pay me in dollars.’ But we could make that happen.”
The OPEC Governor also warned that failure to change course could be costly, saying, “We need to shift from being export-driven to value-driven. If we don’t do this over the next decade, we have failed,” just as he also called for renewed commitment among local operators, noting that international oil companies had already played their part.
