By Adedapo Adesanya
Dangote Petroleum Refinery Limited has insisted that it has been unable to secure its full crude requirement from domestic production.
In a statement signed by the Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Mr Anthony Chiejina, where the company clarified issues relating to the challenges it has been facing in getting crude oil supply locally for its operations.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had instructed that Dangote and other local refineries be sold crude in Naira, to ease a series of challenges it had raised regarding its operation.
The management of the 650,000 barrels per day refinery urged that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
It said, “Our attention has been drawn to media reports alleging that the Dangote Refinery has backtracked by acknowledging that NNPC supplied about 60% of the 50 million barrels we lifted.”
The company denied reports that it had accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of not supplying it with crude.
It said, “Our concern has always been NUPRC’s reluctance to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that we receive our full crude requirement from NNPC and the IOCs.
“For September, our requirement is 15 cargoes, of which NNPC allocated six. Despite appealing to NUPRC, we’ve been unable to secure the remaining cargoes. When we approached IOCs producing in Nigeria, they redirected us to their international trading arms or responded that their cargoes were committed.
“Consequently, we often purchase the same Nigerian crude from international traders at an additional $3-$4 premium per barrel which translates to $3-$4 million per cargo.
“We therefore still insist that we are unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge NUPRC to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA.”
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Group, Mr Aliko Dangote was recently in a sea of controversy with both energy sector regulators and international oil companies (IOCs) over crude oil supplies to the $20 billion barrels facility.
He countered that government officials were working to sabotage his company and that the majority of his crude supplies were imported rather than obtained locally, despite the NUPRC’s accusations that the refinery was producing inferior goods and that it desired a monopoly market.