Oscarline Onwuemenyi
20 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday said multinational oil firms would soon not ship out all the crude oil they produce in Nigeria.
Kachikwu said this in Abuja during a break-out session at the maiden Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) titled “Deepening collaboration in the African Oil and Gas Industry – Challenges and Opportunities for investment”.
According to him, the government is planning to put framework in place for the multinational oil and gas firms to build refineries in Nigeria thereby processing a substantial amount of crude that is produced from the oil fields.
“We would get to a point where Nigeria, definitely, would be a major supplier of refined petroleum products. It just has to happen. Nothing else makes sense. We are also saying directly to oil companies that a time would also come when we would not be open to see them move around all the crude oil they produce in Nigeria.
“We will like to see integrated refining and integrated processing here. It gives us more jobs and creates more investments,” Kachikwu said.
He said currently, the nation had an average in-country refining capacity of 14 per cent, but this would be upgraded to between 90-95 per cent on 10 months to meet rising demands.
Kachikwu said henceforth oil had to provide the resources to power the country, provide jobs for Nigerians and provide the operational environment transparent enough for others to take Nigeria serious.
While delivering a goodwill message at the opening ceremony, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, urged African countries to collaborate and increase trade with one another.
He said, “I want to say that it is high time that African countries collaborate and trade among one another not only in terms of oil and gas but other key sectors.
”One of the key take-always from an event as this is the networking opportunities and the strategic partnerships we make to better not just our industry but also our respective economies.
”No one will do it for us, the onus lies on us to do it for ourselves.”
According to him, the summit’s action points will be developed and crystallised into a veritable roadmap for the future of the industry.
”As I scanned through the list of invited speakers and panelists, I am convinced we will be able to frame new strategies and come up with practicable solutions for effectively developing Africa’s hydrocarbon resources.
The inaugural NIPS is designed to be the African version of the annual Offshore Technology Conference where breakthrough technologies in oil and gas are unveiled.
The NIPS, a five-day event, has the theme: ”Leading Africa’s response to global oil and gas challenges”.
The Secretaries-General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), among others were in attendance.
The session also had in attendance the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Stuart Symington; Minister of Petroleum of Chad, Mr Bechir Madet; and the Secretary General of the International Energy Forum (IEF), Dr. Sun Xiansheng, among others.
