The Chairman of the OPEC Board of Governors for 2025 has urged Nigerian oil producers to shift focus from exporting crude oil to expanding domestic refining and driving value creation within the country.
Speaking at the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) Pre-Conference Workshop in Lagos on Wednesday, Adeyemi-Bero, who also serves as the CEO of First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company, said Nigeria must break away from decades of exporting raw crude and instead retain value in the local economy.
He explained, “We’ve been an oil and gas exporting country. We produced oil; once there was oil, we put it in a tank and sent it abroad. 40 or 50 years later, people blame Shell and others, but I don’t.
They are businesses looking for feedstock for their industrialisation. If you give it to them, they’ll still take it.” Adeyemi-Bero stressed that Nigeria has a responsibility to process its energy resources domestically and use them to drive industrial development.
He added that the presence of the Dangote refinery was critical, noting that fuel subsidies might have been reinstated without it due to the lack of local petroleum product supply.
He continued, “This message is saying, We need to decline exports,” highlighting how countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, and Brazil have expanded and retained their value chains.
According to him, local refining would not only boost GDP but also strengthen the naira, saying, “If we can sell some oil in naira, let’s do it if it works for both parties… the day you can pay for oil in naira because both parties agree, it strengthens the naira.”
Adeyemi-Bero warned that Nigeria must reduce dependency on crude exports or risk long-term economic setbacks. “We need to shift from being export-driven to value-driven. If we don’t do this over the next decade, we have failed,” he said.
He urged local operators to take full ownership of the sector’s future, emphasizing that international oil companies had played their role and that the responsibility now rests on Nigerians.
He underscored the central role of oil and gas in achieving Nigeria’s ambition of becoming a $1tn economy, stating, “Energy access and security is a must… without electricity, without fuel, the economy is not going to grow.”
Adeyemi-Bero also challenged industry players to drive Nigeria’s energy transformation: “The baton has been placed in our hands… We must use ours to step up as a country.”
Earlier, NAPE President Johnbosco Uche highlighted the importance of the pre-conference workshop, noting that this year’s theme ‘Revitalising the Nigerian Petroleum Exploration and Production Strategies for Energy Security and Sustainable Development’ reflects the need for urgent industry-wide action.
He stressed that Nigeria must increase production to reach its three million barrels-per-day target while maintaining sustainability and technical excellence.
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