Govt moves to halt crude export in natural state - The Nation Nigeria

By Grace Obike, Abuja

In its bid to sustain the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government (FG) is putting plans in motion to implement ways to halt the export of crude oil in its natural state.

This, the government says will be done through methanol production which the country would benefit from.

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who made the disclosure said the FG’s need to engage in methanol production has pushed it to source for funds for the implementation of the policy.

He said that apart from growing the economy through methanol production, the government will be able to provide millions of jobs, which will show the world how great Nigeria is.

Dr. Onu said this yesterday in Abuja, during the final meeting of the cabinet committee set up to source funds for the implementation of the national policy on methanol fuel production.

He said, “We are at a time that our nation must start doing things differently, the COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of both developed and developing nations. Today our country has the tremendous potential to show the world that Nigeria can truly be a great nation.

“If we look at our crude oil and natural gas, we export them in their native state and we dont make as much money as we would have made if we process them, we lose a lot of jobs that would have been created by just using science, technology and innovation to convert the natural resources into products that we need everyday.

“Methanol is a wonder chemical, it is a source for the production of thousands of chemicals. It is a chemical that can help us diversify our economy in a way that Nigeria will recover very quickly. This is the best time that we can bring in this chemical to help us grow our economy, create jobs because we are going to produce millions of jobs by just using methanol.

“With this we will be in the position to eliminate gas flaring, the message is that we should no longer be exporting our own natural resources in their native states and allow other people to process it and bring it back to us at higher costs. We are very happy that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved this and said go and look for money so that we can start this project and I am so happy that this meeting will help us solve this problem so that we can go back and report to FEC that we have done our job.”