Nigeria must stop shipping raw crude overseas and instead refine it at home to fuel industrial expansion and economic stability, the 2025 OPEC Board of Governors Chairman declared Wednesday.
Adeyemi-Bero, who leads First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company, delivered the blunt message during the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) pre-conference workshop in Lagos. He insisted the nation has squandered decades by exporting unprocessed oil while others industrialized on Nigeria’s feedstock.
“For 40 or 50 years we pumped crude, loaded it onto tankers, and waved goodbye,” he said. “Foreign refiners are businesses—they’ll always take what we offer. The fault is ours for not keeping the value here.”
Dangote Refinery as Wake-Up Call
Adeyemi-Bero credited the new Dangote refinery with shielding President Bola Tinubu’s subsidy removal from collapse. Without local fuel production, he argued, the policy would have been reversed.
“Imagine subsidy cancellation and unified exchange rates without domestic petrol supply—the president would have reinstated subsidies instantly,” he said. “Dangote’s plant has already eased forex pressure and lifted GDP. If we’d built refineries 50 years ago, Nigeria would be unrecognizable.”
He pointed to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, and Brazil as models—nations that extended their hydrocarbon value chains inward rather than exporting raw resources.
Naira Trades and Export Decline
The OPEC governor proposed selling oil domestically in naira when mutually beneficial, arguing it would bolster the currency’s global utility.
“The naira gains strength from what it can buy,” he explained. “If buyers and sellers agree to naira-denominated crude deals, the currency strengthens. Right now, no one wants naira abroad because it commands nothing.”
He issued a decade-long ultimatum: shift from export dependency to value creation or face irreversible decline.
“We must deliberately decline exports,” Adeyemo-Bero stressed. “Everyone loves selling, but buyers dictate terms. If they invest in dollars, they demand dollar payments. We can change that equation.”
### Local Operators Must Step Up
International oil companies have fulfilled their role, he said; now Nigerian firms must seize control.
“God has handed the baton to us,” he told the audience. “The internationals started it—now the owners must finish it.”
With Nigeria targeting a $1 trillion economy, the oil sector remains the engine, he asserted. Reliable energy access is non-negotiable for factories, power plants, and transport.
“Without fuel and electricity, growth stalls,” he warned. “We carry primary responsibility for energy security.”
### Industry Push for 3 Million Barrels
NAPE President Johnbosco Uche opened the event by framing the workshop as a critical forum under the conference theme: *Revitalising Nigerian Petroleum Exploration and Production Strategies for Energy Security and Sustainable Development*.
Uche called for ramping output toward the national 3 million barrels per day goal while embedding sustainability.
“Short-term, we surge production,” he said. “Long-term, we sustain it. Technical excellence is our lifeline.”
The gathering underscored a growing consensus: Nigeria’s petroleum future hinges not on how much crude leaves its shores, but on how much value stays behind.
