Dangote Denies Accusing NNPCL Of Not Supplying It With Enough Crude

Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Limited has denied not saying that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited was not supplying it with enough crude.

The latest position of the firm on Thursday followed a statement made by its Group Chief Strategy Officer, Aliyu Suleiman.

The GCSO, who spoke at an interactive session organised by the Senate Ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged sabotage in the Nigerian petroleum industry, said out of the five million barrels of crude oil they got in recent time, NNPC gave them 60 percent, 20 percent was imported, and 20 percent purchased.

Suleiman expressed gratitude for the strong partnership between Dangote and NNPCL, describing the refinery as a baby that should be supported by all relevant stakeholders in order to grow and not die.

This position ran contrary to earlier ones by top executives of the company, including the Group Chief Commercial Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Rabiu A. Umar, who claimed that NNPCL has been supplying insufficient crude oil for its production demand.

Umar, who spoke with newsmen in Kano, the Kano State capital, recently, said NNPCL supplies only 33 percent of crude to the refinery, adding that it had to look elsewhere to source the remaining 67 percent to meet its production capacity.

He added that the refinery, which has the capacity of refining 650,000 barrels per day, could not depend on short supply from Nigeria’s oil company.

But speaking on the position of Suleiman in a statement on Thursday, the Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, said their grouse was not about the quantity of supply by NNPCL, but the failure of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that the firm receives its full crude requirement from NNPCL and International Oil Companies.

Chiejina 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.

“To clarify, we have 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.

“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.”