The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to explain the current state and performance of Nigeria’s refineries, saying Nigerians deserve to know the facts about the facilities. Lokpobiri made the call during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, following questions about earlier claims that the refineries had reached full capacity, amid subsequent concerns over their actual output.

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Responding to the questions, the minister said he would ask NNPC to provide a detailed explanation, stressing the need to establish the facts before drawing conclusions about the refineries’ operations. “I will tell them to come. Let them come and explain,” he said, adding that it was better to obtain complete information about the facilities rather than make hasty conclusions.

Lokpobiri also said Nigeria’s crude oil production was averaging about 1.84 million barrels per day, including condensates, based on figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. He said the Federal Government was targeting production of more than two million barrels per day but identified ageing infrastructure, including pipelines more than 50 years old, as a major constraint. The minister added that NNPC was overhauling the pipeline network, while oil operators were returning previously shut-in wells to production to improve output and crude evacuation capacity.