Refinery: ‘It Will Be Very Embarrassing That We Finish Port Harcourt, Dangote, Others And Not Have Enough Crude’ – Minister

The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has sounded the alarm regarding insufficient local crude oil supply for petroleum refining at newly established refineries.

According to the Minister, the recently commissioned Dangote Petrochemical Refinery, Port Harcourt Refinery, Warri Refinery, Kaduna Refinery, and modular refineries may face a shortage of local crude oil for petroleum product production unless sectoral production increases.

Lokpobiri voiced his concerns during the 2024 sector retreat for the ministry held in Abuja on Tuesday, focusing on the theme: ‘Building Synergy for Enhanced Development in the Oil and Gas Sector.’

The minister emphasized the importance of the retreat, which was convened to discuss how to achieve the targets and mandates set for the ministry by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the ministerial retreat held in November, 2023.

Lokpobiri said, “The first target is to see how we can ramp up production, and then we can meet our target in terms of increase in revenue, meet our obligation in the mid-stream and upstream.

“One of the challenges I am afraid of is, 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 and Dangote and BUA and we don’t have feed stocks.”