The G7’s decision to release 100 million barrels from strategic stocks demonstrates what can be done to treat energy security as national security. Strategic stocks may include crude oil, refined products or both. Nigeria should understand the warning. A country blessed with substantial petroleum resources remains exposed to supply disruptions, volatile prices, weak refining capacity and costly imports. We produce oil, yet too often behave as though our energy survival depends entirely on events beyond our control. We remain strategically vulnerable.

The strategic-reserve principle was born from crisis. After the 1973 Arab oil embargo exposed major economies to sudden supply interruptions, the United States created its Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975. The International Energy Agency (IEA), established in 1974, later required member countries to maintain emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net imports, subject to its rules. The lesson was clear: governments need stocks that can cushion citizens and economies when supplies are threatened.

Tensions involving Iran and attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement on commercial shipping around the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea have threatened vital maritime arteries. Strategic-stock releases cannot replace production indefinitely. When coordinated and timed appropriately, however, they can add supply, reduce panic, support transport and industry, and buy time for producers, shippers and refineries to restore normal flows. Their price effect may be temporary, but that is the reserve’s purpose: to give a nation time, options and leverage during a crisis.

Nigeria lacks a strategic crude oil and gas reserve, though it has a strategic stock of petroleum products. A major petroleum producer should not remain without a substantial, reliable reserve of crude and petroleum products. Although policies and regulatory provisions exist, storage, financing, implementation and governance remain unresolved. We must aim for a robust, independently managed national reserve capable of cushioning external disruptions.

Such a reserve could protect motorists, farmers, manufacturers, transport operators and households when supplies tighten or import costs surge. It may not guarantee lower prices or prevent shortages. Refining, distribution, exchange rates, regulation and market conditions would still matter. But without a reserve, Nigeria enters every global energy crisis exposed and reactive. Nigeria must also stabilise production by investing in exploration and maintenance, improving the operating environment, tackling crude theft and illegal refining, securing infrastructure, and addressing Niger Delta grievances. A reserve without dependable production is mere symbolism.

The Federal Government should establish a transparent reserve covering crude oil and gas. It should bolster the existing petroleum products stockpiles, with strict rules for storage, release, auditing and replenishment. Regulators, the media and civil society must demand public reporting, independent oversight and protection against diversion or political manipulation. We must build a credible national reserve before the next crisis. When the world faces an energy emergency, Nigeria should have something in reserve for its own people.