The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has revealed that the Kaduna Refinery was not calibrated to process Nigeria’s crude oil.
Lokpobiri made the shocking revelation on Wednesday when he featured in a Channels TV programme to speak on President Bola Tinubu first year in office.
“What I said was that, Nigeria had always imported crude based on the peculiarities of the refineries. And that is why I was giving example of the Kaduna Refinery. We were importing crude oil from Venezuela.
“Nigeria’s crude is one of the lightest crude in the world. It is one of the sweetest crude in the world. Some refineries are not calibrated for that.
“That was why the Kaduna Refinery was one that was meant to refine very thick crude oil. So, they were importing from Venezuela. So, it is not happening for the first time,” Lokpobiri said.
Speaking on speculations that Nigeria’s crude oil production has been pledged in debt and so, the country is unable to supply the Dangote Refinery sufficient quantity for what they need to get going, the minister said:
“I don’t want to dwell on whether our crude oil had been pledged before we came into office. My ambition is to increase production.
“Whatever the speculations, we have increased production and that means more money for the government to be able to finance other critical sectors of the economy.
“If for whatever reason, Dangote is importing crude from outside Nigeria, it should be based on his business model. Sometimes, you may want to import so that you may mix the Nigerian crude together with whatever crude he wants to import.
“If you want to go on a voyage of discovery, I think you should engage NNPC”.
Lokpobiri also said President Tinubu was misunderstood when he said “subsidy is gone” during his inaugural speech.
“Let me say categorically, the President on the day he was sworn-in said subsidy is gone. The President was misunderstood clearly.
“The last government of Buhari did not make any provision for subsidy in the 2023 budget. Whether anybody said it or not, subsidy was gone.
“When the President in his characteristics style of speaking truth was to say look, in the last 2023 budget, there was no provision for subsidy; so, subsidy is gone. I can confirm subsidy is gone.
“But that doesn’t mean that from time to time there should be no strategic intervention. There could be strategic intervention from time to time, but officially, subsidy is gone,” the minister added.
