Amid the raging controversy over access to local feedstock, the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, on Friday said it is yet to receive cargoes of the 29 million barrels of crude oil allocation the Federal Government said it has facilitated.
This is just as the company urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to implement the domestic crude supply obligation as specified in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Nonetheless, a statement by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer of the Dangote Group while thanking government for the allocation insisted that it is “unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA.”
Continuing, he said “aside from the term supply we bilaterally negotiated with NNPCL, so far NUPRC has only facilitated the purchase of one crude cargo from a domestic producer. The rest of the cargoes we have processed were purchased from international traders.”
All the group seeks, chiejina said, “is for refineries in Nigeria to buy crude directly from the companies that produce it in Nigeria rather than from international middlemen. This is specified in the PIA. Unfortunately, the NUPRC has effectively admitted in their statement, that they will be unable to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as specified in the PIA citing “sanctity of contracts” as an excuse.”
He recalled that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery management had insisted that it was not yet getting enough crude required for the effective optimization of its refinery from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
Chiejina clarified that his company has never accused NNPC of not supplying “…us with crude. 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.”
He further 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.”
