Analysts say the oil-for-naira program seeks to change the problems facing Nigeria’s petroleum industry by facilitating domestic oil transactions in naira. The move could inject liquidity into the naira, reduce dependency on foreign exchange, and stimulate investment in the oil sector.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Video - Nigeria to allow purchase of crude oil in local currency
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Video - Nigerian start-up helps street food vendors find customers
Fashola Oba and his wife, Shiba, launched the Local Eats App to help small local restaurants up scale their operations using technology. The app allows people to order traditional Nigerian meals from local restaurants. The app has helped keep the popular joints in competition with modern restaurants.
Related story: Chowdeck is hungry for Nigeria’s food delivery market. One day, it wants to be a ‘super-app for Africa’
We Built Our $20bn Refinery Without Single Incentive from FG - Dangote
Dangote stated this in Lagos Tuesday in a speech delivered on his behalf by the company’s Group Executive Director, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, at the inaugural edition of the Crude Oil Refiners Association (CORAN) Summit, with the theme: ‘Making Nigeria A Net Exporter of Petroleum Products.’
The $20 billion Dangote refinery sited at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos is reputed to be the seventh largest refinery in the world, as well as the world’s largest single train refinery.
The refinery, envisioned to transform Nigeria from a petroleum products import-dependent country to a net exporter of refined products, has since January 2024 been producing white products including diesel, aviation fuel, Naphtha and recently, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol in Nigeria.
But addressing industry stakeholders at the CORAN Summit, Dangote restated that the refinery produces sufficient diesel and jet fuel to meet Nigeria’s demand.
He said the company recently started the production of petrol, adding that the refinery will soon ramp up its production to meet Nigeria’s demand.
He maintained that the refinery’s products are being exported to diverse markets including Europe, Brazil, the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore and South Korea among others.
He said to achieve the vision of the conveners of the summit, which is to make Nigeria a net petroleum products exporter and an energy sufficient country, the country will need to build up to 1.5 million bpd refining capacity, with support from the government and collaboration by industry stakeholders.
Dangote said: “To grab this opportunity, we will need to build 1.5m barrels per day of refining capacity. This will not be an easy feat and strong government support will be required to achieve this.
“We built the Dangote Refinery without a single incentive from the government. However, to achieve the vision of turning Nigeria into a refining hub, investors need to be incentivized.”
To ensure sufficient feedstock availability for local refineries, he said Nigeria will need to stop mortgaging its crude oil.
According to him, “It is unfortunate that while countries like Norway are putting oil proceeds into a future fund, in Africa we are spending oil proceeds from the future. We will also need to prioritise the implementation of the domestic crude supply obligations.
“We will need to expand our crude oil production capacity to support demand from new refining capacity.”
The government of President Bola Tinubu is taking active steps to achieve this through fast-tracking IOC divestments and other initiatives.
Dangote expressed optimism that Nigeria and Africa can become completely self-sufficient and can keep all the value on their shores.
Having achieved self-sufficiency in cement, he said the country can certainly replicate that in petroleum products.
To realize the vision of improving Nigeria’s refining capacity and increase values from the nation’s oil resources, Dangote called for full implementation of the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) as enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
“We will also need to prioritize implementation of the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation rightly. We will need to expand crude production capacity to support demand from the new refining capacity.
“The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is taking steps to achieve this through fast-tacking the IOC divestment and other initiatives,” he added
Dangote warmed that global developments in the petroleum sector particularly in Europe will disrupt historical trade flows for refined petroleum products in Africa.
However, he said Nigeria is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity and be a formidable player in the global oil industry.
He added: “As a vibrant exporter of refined products, Nigeria will witness an improvement in its balance of trade and generate the much needed foreign currency. Nigeria’s potential as a refining hub is clearly not in doubt, let’s work together to make it happen.”
By Peter Uzoho, This Day
Nigeria town celebrates after hunting down ‘killer hippo’
People in Yauri, in Kebbi state, have been terrified of the hippo after she killed a fisherman who worked for the local traditional leader.
It prompted the Kebbi state government to order that the animal be killed for the safety of the community living along the River Niger.
Nigeria’s hippo population has declined rapidly over the last few decades - estimates suggest there are now around 100 animals, which mainly live in conservation areas.
The hippo in Yauri was tracked down by young men, who used locally made spears known as a “zagos” to kill it.
Its carcass has since been ferried in a canoe to the palace of one of the Emir of Yauri's high-ranking administrators, where it has been butchered and its meat given to those in local community.
“We are a town of fishermen and farmers and this hippo has made many to stop going out due to fear of an attack,” resident Sani Yauri told the BBC.
“Apart from killing a member of the emir’s staff, it also seriously injured another person - not also forgetting the damage it regularly does to our farmlands.”
There are many paddy fields along the banks of the river near the town, where the hippo had sometimes been spotted.
“We are happy it has been killed and people came out in jubilation - and also got their share of the meat,” Mr Yauri said.
Another resident, Isa Jamilu, said he was relieved that could now go to his farm, which he had abandoned weeks ago.
Photos of the dead animal have been widely shared on social media - with mixed reactions: some hailed members of the local community for standing up for themselves while others expressed concern about the welfare of the animal.
The common hippopotamus is on the red list of threatened species put together by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“This is an endangered species and I was sad when I saw the video clip of people celebrating after it was killed,” Isyaku Abdullahi, animal rights activist and founder of Nigeria's African Voice for Animals Initiative, told the BBC.
“What the people of Yauri ought to have done was to report to relevant authorities who would capture and relocate it.”
He said communities living in rural areas, especially places like Kebbi state where there are several rivers and lakes, needed to be made aware of other options when dealing with the dangerous mammals.
Kebbi is renowned for hosting the annual Argungu Fishing Festival, which is on the United Nations' cultural heritage list.
Hippos are the third-largest land mammal and their teeth can reach up to 50.8cm (20in) in length. Despite their size, they can also reach speeds of up to 20mph (32km/h).
While the animals are herbivores, they can become highly aggressive when they feel threatened or their habitats are disturbed - and kill around 500 people every year in Africa.
By Mansur Abubakar, BBC
Dangote Says Nigeria can become refining hub
Nigeria must enhance its crude oil production capacity and effectively manage its crude supply to ensure adequate feedstock for domestic refineries in order to transit from a net importer to a net exporter of petroleum products, Chairman of the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited, Aliko Dangote, has said.
Dangote made this assertion during his keynote address at a summit held in Lagos by the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria, CORAN.
The event attracted top government officials and key stakeholders from the midstream and downstream sectors.
Addressing Nigeria’s potential as a refining hub, Dangote expressed concern that, despite producing over 3.4 million barrels of crude oil per day, Africa imports around 3 million barrels of petroleum products daily.
He noted that these imports, primarily from Europe, Russia, and other regions, were estimated to cost approximately $17 billion in 2023.
He said Nigeria could capitalise on this situation to become a net exporter of refined petroleum products, as the markets would be more competitively served by the country.
“Both the crude oil and the petroleum products will travel shorter distances. The logistics costs of floating storage will be eliminated, and countries can purchase their petroleum product requirements just in time.
”Nigeria and Africa can become completely self-sufficient, and we can keep all the value on our shores. We have done it in cement, and we can certainly do it for petroleum products.
“It is worth noting that the Dangote Refinery already produces sufficient diesel and jet fuel to meet Nigeria’s demand. We recently started the production of PMS and will soon ramp up to meet Nigeria’s needs.
”Our refined products have been exported to diverse markets, including Europe, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Singapore, and South Korea,” he added.
Represented by Engr. Mansur Ahmed, Group Executive Director of Dangote Industries Ltd, Dangote emphasised that Nigeria must develop a refining capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day and prioritise domestic crude supply obligations to seize this opportunity.
Acknowledging present and future challenges, he urged the government to incentivise investors, contrasting this with the Dangote Oil Refinery, which was built without any government incentives.
He said: “It is unfortunate that while countries like Norway are putting oil proceeds into a future fund, in Africa, we are spending oil proceeds from the future. We will also need to prioritise the implementation of domestic crude supply obligations.
”We will need to expand our crude oil production capacity to support demand from new refining capacity. The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is taking active steps to achieve this through fast-tracking IOC divestments and other initiatives.”
Emphasising that global developments in the petroleum sector, particularly in Europe, would disrupt historical trade flows for refined petroleum products in Africa, Dangote stated that Nigeria was uniquely positioned to capitalise on this opportunity to become a significant player in the global oil industry.
While calling for consultation, collaboration, and cooperation among stakeholders, he said: “As a vibrant exporter of refined products, Nigeria will witness an improvement in its balance of trade and generate much-needed foreign currency. Nigeria’s potential as a refining hub is not in doubt; let us work together to make it happen.”
The foremost industrialist noted that the summit’s theme, “Making Nigeria a Net Exporter of Petroleum Products,” would have seemed unrealistic a few years ago, adding that despite being Africa’s largest crude oil producer, Nigeria has historically relied on imports to meet its refined petroleum product needs.
However, he emphasised that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals was poised to transform Nigeria from a “net importer” to a “net exporter” of refined petroleum products, establishing the country as an emerging player in global downstream trade flows; with refined products already exported to various markets, including Europe, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Singapore, and South Korea.
Commending Dangote for this transformation, Chairman of IPPG/Waltersmith Refinery & Petrochemicals Co. Ltd, Abdulrazaq Isa, called on the government to support domestic refiners by ensuring the availability of crude, adhering to domestic crude supply obligations, and implementing effective pricing and monitoring measures to prevent smuggling.
Chairman of CORAN’s Board of Trustees and CEO of Integrated Oil & Gas, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho, retd, said Dangote Oil Refinery had set a high standard by producing Euro-V products, thus protecting citizens from exposure to high-sulphur products.
He noted that transforming Nigeria into a net exporter will bring numerous benefits but reiterated the need for increased investment to boost crude production, lamenting that Nigeria loses approximately $83 billion annually by not meeting its OPEC quota.
While acknowledging that tank farms remain essential despite local refining, Iheanacho urged the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to consider cancelling import licences, as Nigeria can now meet its local demand.
Chairman of the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, MEMAN, Huub Stokman, said Nigeria was on the verge of becoming Africa’s refining powerhouse, which would significantly boost the economy.
The Chairman of CORAN, Momoh Oyarekhua, also expressed concern over challenges related to crude supply, stating that domestic refiners would work with regulators and stakeholders to address these issues.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lopkobiri, assured that the government would continue to refine frameworks to enhance crude production and support domestic refineries.
His counterpart from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, emphasised the Tinubu-led administration’s commitment to ensuring value addition for mineral resources before export.
By Udeme Akpan, Vanguard
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