Page 18 - Nigeria one mag en-21

Refineries, the Nigerian industrialization challenge
To operate a refinery in an environment of a tap-
ped pipeline, severe pollution, kidnapping, and
especially in times of climate change and public
awareness of the need for alternative energy
sources, Nigeria’s future however continues to
advance in this 21st century. Nigeria’s natural re-
sources lie a hundred feet beneath its service,
and they could transform the nation’s fortune.
In some countries, the discovery of oil has
brought unprecedented wealth, and development
while in some other countries, the discovery of oil
has brought economic stagnation, corruption.
For oil itself has excellent qualities, it is low in
Petrol refinery Sulphur, easy to blend, and relatively

Just a decade after oil was discovered in 1957, it straightforward to drill. For a country like India,
was a major factor tearing Nigeria apart in civil they create about 5 million barrels per day, and
war. Since then, production has seldom exceeded that is a country where they don’t have oil at all.
2 million barrels a day, many economists blamed Nigeria is sitting on over 2,400,000 barrels at a
the state-owned industry. Nigeria is sitting on 37 point and we don’t refine any of this oil. This is
billion barrels of oil enough to power the country an opportunity to get the Nigerian oil and gas
for 273 years, the biggest producer of oil in Africa industry where it needs to be. We import almost
still imports from other countries. 100% of the oil we con-sume, for a country that
According to the Former DG Lagos Chamber of has the tenth world larg-est oil reserve.
Commerce and Industry Dr. Muda Yusuf, these Business Mogul and Entrepreneur Aliko Dangote
are state-owned refineries and we know what the has decided to build a refinery. According to Dan-
stories have been, over the past 10 years. They gote, the refinery would be producing 650,000
have been underperforming closely, and become barrels daily. “Nigeria exports almost 2,400,000
a major liability, the problem of oil theft by mili- daily and we don’t refine any at all”, he said.
tant groups is endemic in Nigeria. By some esti- According to Godwin Emefiele (Central Bank Go-
mates, 15% of all crude produced is stolen and vernor) setting up a 650,000 barrels per day refi-
on the black market. NNPC runs 4 refineries that nery, is usually a project set up by sovereign
operate at a fraction of the capacity, the newest is countries, not by an individual no matter how big
4 decades old. According to a spokesman and an the company is. According to Dangote, the refine-
oil and gas analyst Bode Ososami, oil does not ry is going to help to transform not only the oil
have to be a curse. It is more truthful to say, for and gas sector but also the entire economy of the
Nigeria oil has been a wasted opportunity and country. A key solution to the oil supply issue in
does not need to be that. He also mentioned that Nigeria seems to be within reach. Business tycoon
countries with abundant natural resources, tend and entrepreneur Aliko Dangote has begun cons-
to have challenges with economic growth, and truction of a giant refinery that is expected to
wealth development outcomes when you compare dramatically change the way oil is supplied to Ni-
them with fewer natural resources. The cause is geria and the rest of the continent. The mega-
not in the oil itself, but in how it has been mana- refinery is expected to be operational in the
ged. second half of 2022.

Nigeria 18