In an apparent major shift from previous clam by the Dangote Refinery company, the Group Chief Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company, Aliyu Suleiman has stated that 60 per cent of the crude supplied to the refinery was done by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.
Aliyu made the submission during an interactive session organised by the Senate Ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged sabotage in the Nigerian petroleum industry.
This supersedes the position of the Group Chief Commercial Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Rabiu A. Umar, who had claimed that the NNPC has been supplying insufficient crude oil for its production demand.
Umar had said that NNPC supplies only 33 per cent of crude to the refinery, disclosing that it had to look elsewhere to source the remaining 67 per cent to meet its production capacity.
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He added that the refinery, which has the capacity of refining 650,000 per day, could not depend on short supply from Nigeria’s oil company.
But during his presentation, Aliyu Suleiman stated that out of the five million barrels of crude oil they got in recent time, “NNPC gave them 60 per cent, 20 per cent was imported, and 20 per cent was purchased”.
Aliyu expressed gratitude for the strong partnership between the Dangote Refinery and the NNPC Ltd, and for making the huge supply to Dangote.
He described the refinery as a baby that should be supported by all relevant stakeholders “in order to grow and not die”.
Dangote clarifies its stand on crude supply to its Refinery
However, in a late night statement signed by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, the company said that “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, Chiejina said that Dangote Refinery 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,” he said.
