The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has emphasised the need for collaborative efforts to establish a fuel refining hub for Africa, stressing that this task cannot be left to a single country.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, made this call at the Global Commodity Insights Conference on West African Refined Fuel Market on Tuesday in Abuja.
Ojulari highlighted the importance of collaboration over exclusion in building an African fuel refining hub.
He noted that global energy demand was expected to rise by over 25 per cent by 2040, with Africa contributing significantly to both demand and energy usage.
However, Africa currently exports crude oil but imports refined products at a significant premium, which depleted value, suppressed industrialisation, heightens supply vulnerability, and compromises energy sovereignty.
The NNPC CEO identified several structural bottlenecks in West Africa’s fuel market, including underinvestment in refining infrastructure, fragmented regulatory frameworks, value inconsistency, skills gap, and limited local development.
He however emphasised that these challenges could be turned into opportunities with coordinated actions, bold investments, and resolute leadership.
Ojulari said that the NNPC was actively working to build a sufficient refining ecosystem that could anchor a continental hub.
This includes the strategic review and repositioning of its refineries, equity in the Dangote Refinery, condensate opportunities, and other third-party projects.
However, he emphasised that no single country could build a refining hub for Africa, and success demands a continental strategy driven by shared markets, integrated infrastructure, and harmonized policies.
The conference aimed to provide a platform for stakeholders to explore the potential development of the West African reference market for refined fuels.
A major focus would be on developing frameworks for data transparency, standardization, and cross-border collaboration to build a robust and reliable pricing reference mechanism in West Africa.
The conference is expected to bring together key stakeholders from across the energy value chain, including regulators to discuss regulatory frameworks and policies that can support the development of a refining hub among others.
The conference would focus on developing frameworks for data transparency, standardisation, and cross-border collaboration to build a robust and reliable pricing reference mechanism in West Africa.
