Nigerian government owned four refineries that had capacity of 445,000 barrel per day when they were fully functional. They are Warri refinery and petrochemical company, old Port Harcourt refinery; new Port Harcourt Refinery and petrochemical company and Kaduna refinery and petrochemical company.
The truth of the matter is, even if these refineries were functional today, it won't be able to cater for today's demand by the country. According to a statistics report I saw on the internet, the
Nigerian oil consumption is approximately 428000 barrels of oil. Going by the figures you provided above, when you compare what we want and what those three refineries were to be producing, you will realize that if these refineries were to be functioning today, they can barely serve the nation of it needs. Now, imagine that these refineries have been almost useless as they don't even function right now.
According to news, if Dangote refinery is fully functional, it will have capacity of 650000 barrels per day. Which means it is bigger than the whole four refineries combined. Dangote refinery is even buying crude oil from outside Nigeria like from United States. It is the Africa biggest refinery and the world's largest single train refinery according to what I read on news.
What I read last was that there was crude oil shortage in Nigeria. I am also surprised that Dangote is importing crude oil. The problem Nigeria has regarding oils is more than the damaged refinery. Some people making money from importing refined oils do not want functional refineries in Nigeria. After Dangote refinery has been working, this truth has surfaced and known already.
As of today, a news report shows that Dangote refinery will be purchasing a total of 1 million barrels of fuel from the Brazilian crude to serve for the second half of next month. When Nigeria is supposed to be enjoying the refinery, if they were to sell domesticaly to the Dangote refinery. It is obvious to agree with you that our problem is way beyond just the refineries and as a matter of fact, has also caused the unfortunate situation of the refineries we face today. The oil cabals have always worked hard to truncate whatever success that should be recorded in the oil sector for their private accounts. What's more annoying is that these said people are more powerful than the government and seems to be the controllers of the government. I can't believe that a country like Nigeria which is supposed to be the giant of Africa can be put to its bear like this.