By Franklin Ogude
Nigerian refineries provide substantial economic advantages and lessen dependency on imported refined petroleum products. These refineries produce value for the economy including
- Generating jobs in the building, operations, and maintenance sectors.
- Nigeria could be able to extract more value from its natural resources by refining its own oil, which could lead to an increase in taxes and royalties collected by the government.
- Attracting Investment: Robust refineries have the potential to draw in more capital for associated sectors like transportation and petrochemicals.
Refineries can reduce importation in other areas as well. These include:
- Lower Costs: Refined items can be expensive to import because of transportation and customs. Refined products can be imported less frequently when they are refined domestically.
- Stable Supply: By reducing supply chain interruptions from foreign sources, local refineries can contribute to a more dependable supply of petroleum products.
- Value Addition: Local production of refined goods like jet fuel, diesel, and petrol enables the nation to retain a higher portion of the economic value derived from its crude oil.
Building and operating refineries in Nigeria could enhance economic stability, create jobs, reduce costs, and increase the country’s self-sufficiency in petroleum products.
From the time of its founding to the present, the Dangote Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, has played a crucial role in providing thousands of young Nigerians with a platform for the creation of jobs.
More refineries in Nigeria will contribute to the growth of locally produced goods, which would increase the value of the currency.
What Can You Make From A Barrel Of Oil?
Researchers broke down a typical barrel of domestic crude oil into what could be produced from it. The average domestic crude oil has a gravity of 32 degrees and weighs 7.21 pounds per gallon.
Here’s what one barrel of crude oil can produce;
- Distillate fuel to drive a large truck (five miles per gallon) for almost 40 miles. If jet fuel fraction is included, that same truck can run nearly 50 miles
- Asphalt to make about one gallon of tar for patching roofs or streets
- Nearly 70 kilowatt-hours of electricity at a powerplant generated by residual fuel
- Liquified glasses, such as propane, to fill 12 small (14.1 ounces) cylinders for homes, camping, or workshop use
- Wax for 170 birthday candles or 27 crayons
- Lubricant to make about one quart of motor oil
- About four pounds of charcoal briquettes
- Gasoline to drive a medium-sized car (17 miles per gallon) for more than 280 miles.
There would be enough petrochemicals left in that same barrel to also provide the base for;
- 540 toothbrushes
- 65 plastic drinking cups
- 11 plastic telephone housings
- 750 pocket combs
- 39 polyester shirts
- 65 plastic dustpans
- 23 hula hoops
- 195 one-cups measuring cups
- -135 four-inch rubber balls
The lighter materials in a barrel are used mainly for paint thinners and dry-cleaning solvents, and they can make nearly a quart of one of these products. The miscellaneous fraction of what is left still contains enough byproducts to be used in medicinal oils, still gas, road oil, and plant condensates. It is a real industry horn of plenty.
