NNPC should face Nigerians over refinery questions – Lokpobiri

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) should explain to Nigerians what is happening with the country’s refineries.

Lokpobiri stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, where he responded to criticism that Nigerians were misled about the performance of the refineries.

The minister said transparency was necessary and promised to ask NNPC to appear and explain the situation.

“I will tell them to come. Let them come and explain,” he said.

He made the remark after the programme’s host argued that Nigerians deserved answers over claims that the refineries had reached full capacity, only for questions to emerge later about their output.

Rather than make assumptions, Lokpobiri said it was important to establish the facts before drawing conclusions.

“I’ve said here that it is better for us to have the full facts about these refineries so that we don’t make any hasty conclusions,” he said.

The minister also spoke about Nigeria’s oil production.

According to him, the country’s output had increased.

He said figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, (NUPRC) showed that production was averaging about 1.84 million barrels per day, including condensates.

According to him, the government is working towards raising production beyond 2 million barrels per day, but ageing infrastructure remains a major obstacle.

“The reason why we are not able to do more than this is because of the state of our infrastructure,” he said.

Lokpobiri explained that many of Nigeria’s pipelines are more than 50 years old, making it difficult to evacuate additional crude even when production increases.

He said NNPC had begun a comprehensive pipeline overhaul, which would gradually improve evacuation capacity.

The minister also said operators were bringing previously shut-in oil wells back into production through re-entry programmes following recent asset transfers involving Shell’s former assets now operated by Renaissance Africa Energy and Seplat’s acquisition of ExxonMobil’s onshore business.

According to him, these efforts are contributing to the gradual increase in Nigeria’s crude oil production.