The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country, OPEC, has identified Nigeria, a leading African oil producer, as the least refining member with an average equivalent of 10,600 barrels per day, bpd in five years.
According to the latest OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2023, Nigeria refined an equivalent of 33,000 bpd, 8,000 bpd, 1,000 bpd, 5,000 bpd and 6,000 bpd in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia emerged as the highest refining OPEC member with an average equivalent of 2.6 million barrels per day, mb/d, during the period.
Specifically, Saudi Arabia refined 2.8 mb/d, 2.6 mb/d, 2.3 mb/d, 2.5 mb/d and 2.9 mb/d in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Unlike Nigeria which has four non-functional state-owned and some privately owned plants, Saudi Arabia has five functional refineries.
Except Equatorial Guinea, whose figures were not available, other OPEC members, including Algeria, Angola, Congo, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela also have impressive refining figures during the period.
Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to import petroleum products from the global market, a development, experts attributed to inconsistent policies, lack of long-term funds, and difficulties associated with sourcing foreign exchange and feedstock required to support the construction of new refineries.
