{"id":348515,"date":"2025-10-06T01:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348515"},"modified":"2025-10-05T21:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:17:33","slug":"nigerias-oil-boom-meets-its-refining-headache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348515","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s Oil Boom Meets Its Refining Headache"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">Nigeria is pumping more crude and drilling harder than it has in years, thanks to reforms under President Bola Tinubu that are finally coaxing cash back into the upstream. Daily output has climbed to between 1.7 and 1.83 million barrels, while active rigs surged from 31 in January to 50 by mid-year, Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri told delegates at Africa Energy Week.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The turnaround is pinned on the \u201cProject One Million Barrels\u201d initiative and the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Act, which the government insists has created a predictable playing field for investors. Lokpobiri pointed to over $5.5 billion in fresh investment decisions tied to asset divestments by IOCs\u2014moves he said are adding some 200,000 bpd to national production. Nigeria, he declared, is \u201copen for business.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But problems persist downstream. The country\u2019s crown jewel refinery\u2014Aliko Dangote\u2019s $20 billion, 650,000-bpd plant in Lagos\u2014is mired in strikes, sabotage claims, and financial headaches. Earlier this week, Nigeria\u2019s top oil union launched a nationwide walkout after 800 refinery workers were sacked for alleged \u201cacts of sabotage.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Dangote insists he\u2019s rooting out bad actors; unions say he\u2019s firing organizers. The strike has already shuttered offices at NNPC and key regulators, raising fears it could spill over into production if not resolved.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Even before the labor brawl, the refinery was under pressure. Dangote has admitted to reselling crude cargoes and halting local fuel sales as currency distortions made operations unprofitable.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Buying crude in dollars and selling fuel in a weakening naira is a recipe for red ink, and calls for government-backed import bans have underscored just how fragile the model is.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Nigeria\u2019s oil reforms may be luring rigs back to the delta, but if its refining dream continues to falter, the paradox remains: a top global crude exporter still at risk of shortages at home.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">By Julianne Geiger<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria is pumping more crude and drilling harder than it has in years, thanks to reforms under President Bola Tinubu that are finally coaxing cash back into the upstream. Daily output has climbed to between 1.7 and 1.83 million barrels, while active rigs surged from 31 in January to 50 by mid-year, Minister of State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67315,"featured_media":348558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oil-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/67315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348563,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348515\/revisions\/348563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}