The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is facing allegations of providing inadequate crude oil to the refinery.
The Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Industries Limited,
Rabiu A. Umar, stated in Kano that NNPCL only supplies 33% of the required
crude oil to the refinery.
To meet the production capacity of the refinery, they are
forced to seek the remaining 67% from other sources. Umar mentioned that the
refinery is making arrangements to procure crude oil from Brazil and America,
starting in August.
Rabi’u emphasized that in order for the $20 billion refinery
to fulfill its production requirements, it needs to explore alternative sources
of crude oil procurement from abroad since the NNPCL's allocation is
inadequate.
He highlighted that the refinery, with a daily refining
capacity of 650,000 barrels, cannot rely solely on limited supply from
Nigeria's oil company.
He added that the initial plan was to utilize the locally
available crude oil for refining within the country to benefit both the nation
and its people.
“Ironically, the country takes the crude oil overseas for
refining while we have a refinery, one of the biggest in the world.
“So, we will not stay idle. We have to look for other
sources to meet our production capacity. If we get the crude oil supply here in
the country we have no reason to go overseas.
“Even now, we are planning to take supply of crude oil from
countries like Brazil and USA,” he said.
He stated that the refinery began exporting to international
markets in February. He also mentioned that they have been receiving orders
from various countries, particularly for aviation fuel.
Rabi’u additionally disclosed that the refinery will require
15 shipments of crude oil in September, “but NNPCL promised only five. We
cannot explain the reason. And we do not want to belive it is an act of
sabotage.”
He said: “The refinery should be celebrated and embraced by
the government rather than painting it black as it is the biggest employer of
labour with over 50,000 workers at the moment.
“We are here to defend ourselves and all the government
narratives are not true. We urge the people to take samples of our products to
ascertain their quality. We will not be deterred by the government’s criticism.
We will continue until we reach the promised land.”