The Chairman of the 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, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company, 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 argued that Nigeria had a responsibility to develop its energy resources locally and use them to drive industrial growth, rather than depend on foreign markets.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu would have returned fuel subsidies if the Dangote refinery had not been there to produce fuel locally.
