A Rejoinder by the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN)

The recent intervention by the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), through its Executive Secretary, Mr. Anibor Kragha, reinforces a fundamental argument which the Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) has consistently advanced: Africa cannot attain genuine energy security while remaining structurally dependent on imported refined petroleum products.

Mr. Kragha’s emphasis on energy sovereignty is particularly instructive. Energy security is not simply about ensuring that petroleum products are available at filling stations. It is about developing the domestic productive capacity, infrastructure and institutional resilience required to guarantee that availability, even in the face of geopolitical disruptions and global market instability.

For Nigeria, this distinction is especially important.

We cannot continue to celebrate our position as a leading crude oil producer while accepting an economic structure in which crude is exported, refined abroad and subsequently imported at considerable cost to our economy.

This is precisely the contradiction CORAN has repeatedly drawn attention to.

However, the challenge extends beyond constructing additional refineries. Nigeria must create an integrated domestic refining ecosystem in which crude oil production, feedstock supply, refining, storage, transportation and distribution operate within a coherent national industrial policy.

The emergence of the Dangote Refinery and indigenous modular refineries demonstrates that domestic refining is commercially achievable. But their existence alone does not guarantee energy sovereignty. These investments must be supported by commercially sustainable access to feedstock, adequate infrastructure, competitive financing and predictable regulation.

This is where CORAN’s advocacy becomes particularly relevant.

First, domestic crude availability must move beyond policy declarations to commercially enforceable supply arrangements. The Domestic Crude Supply Obligation under the Petroleum Industry Act must achieve its intended purpose. Allocation on paper is not the same as actual delivery to a refinery under commercially viable terms.

Second, Nigeria requires a domestic crude pricing framework that recognises the economics of local refining. International benchmarks remain relevant, but pricing arrangements should properly account for crude quality, delivery points, transportation costs and the commercial advantages associated with domestic supply.

Third, the Naira-for-Crude initiative must become an inclusive and predictable industrial policy. It should accommodate qualifying modular and independent refineries rather than operating principally to the advantage of the largest refining facilities.

Fourth, petroleum product importation must progressively become a mechanism for addressing genuine domestic supply shortfalls, rather than an enduring substitute for investment in local productive capacity. This transition must be transparent, competition-friendly and consistent with the Petroleum Industry Act.

Fifth, government must deliberately support the infrastructure and financing requirements of indigenous refinery development. Shared pipelines, coastal terminals, storage facilities, product evacuation networks and appropriately structured long-term financing are essential to making Nigerian refineries competitive.

Importantly, CORAN is not advocating a return to indiscriminate consumption subsidies or administrative price controls. Rather, we believe government intervention should increasingly support productive capacity, reduce structural costs and allow competition among domestic producers to deliver sustainable benefits to consumers.

There is also a compelling case for expanding Nigeria’s crude production through targeted field-development initiatives that create additional feedstock for domestic refining without arbitrarily disrupting existing upstream contractual obligations.

ARDA’s continental perspective and CORAN’s domestic industry advocacy are therefore not competing propositions. They are complementary dimensions of the same economic imperative.

Africa needs greater refining capacity, but Nigeria must first demonstrate that its substantial crude oil resources can support a commercially viable and competitive refining industry.

Our position remains that energy sovereignty cannot be achieved merely by changing the source from which petroleum products are purchased. It requires changing the economic structure through which those products are produced.

We commend Mr. Anibor Kragha and ARDA for continuing to advance this conversation across the continent.

The next challenge is to translate this emerging consensus into actionable government policies, measurable investments and functioning refineries.

Nigeria must cease to regard domestic refining as merely another commercial activity. It is a strategic industrial capability, an instrument of foreign-exchange conservation, a source of employment and a foundation for national economic security.

Africa’s energy sovereignty must begin with African production. For Nigeria, it must begin with making domestic refining work.

Crude Oil Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (CORAN)