The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country, OPEC, has rated Nigeria, a leading African oil producer, as the least refining member with an average equivalent of 10,600 barrels per day, bpd in five years.
Nigeria emerges least refining OPEC member with average of 10,600 bpd in 5yrs
The nation refined an equivalent of 33,000 bpd, 8,000 bpd, 1,000 bpd, 5,000 bpd and 6,000 bpd in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively, according to the latest OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2023, obtained by Vanguard.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia emerged as the highest refining OPEC member with an average equivalent of 2.6 million barrels per day, mb/d, during the period.
Specifically, Saudi Arabia refined 2.8 mb/d, 2.6 mb/d, 2.3 mb/d, 2.5 mb/d and 2.9 mb/d in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Checks by Vanguard indicated that Saudi Arabia has five functional refineries while Nigeria has four non-functional state-owned and some privately owned plants.
Except Equatorial Guinea, whose figures were not available, other OPEC members, including Algeria, Angola, Congo, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela also have impressive refining figures during the period.
Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to import petroleum products from the global market, a development, experts attributed to inconsistent policies, lack of long-term funds, and difficulties associated with sourcing foreign exchange and feedstock required to support the construction of new refineries.
The experts, who disclosed these in different interviews with Vanguard, yesterday, explained that in the past, many promoters were attracted to investing in refineries because the government allowed them to participate in the lifting of crude oil.
They also disclosed that the promoters of the refineries did not have access to long-term funds and foreign exchange required to import various items, adding that lack of sustainable crude oil supply guarantee also constituted a factor.
