The management of the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals has clarified that it has never accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) of not supplying the refinery with crude.
Dangote Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, made this clarification in a statement issued late on Thursday.
He said, the clarification was necessary because of the media reports alleging that the Dangote Refinery has backtracked by acknowledging that NNPC supplied about 60% of the 50 million barrels it lifted.
“To clarify, we have never accused NNPC of not supplying us with crude”, he said.
Chiejina, however, stated that the company’s concern has always been Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s reluctance to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that it receive its full crude requirement from NNPC and the International Oil Companies (IOCs).
He explained 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 Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
