By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Dangote Group has appealed to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The conglomerate made this plea in reaction to reports that it had made a U-turn about the supply of crude oil for its oil refinery in Lagos by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu recently directed the NNPC to sell the commodity to Dangote Refinery in Naira after it cried out that some oil cabals were plotting the failure of the organisation.
While appearing before a senate committee set up to probe the importation of adulterated petrol into the country, Dangote Refinery said it has received about 60 per cent of 50 million barrels from the NNPC.
It was later reported in a section of the media that Dangote Refinery had backtracked, but in a statement on Thursday, the firm said it “never accused NNPC of not supplying us with crude.”
It clarified in the statement signed by its Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Mr Anthony Chiejina, that, “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.”