The Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has insisted that it is not yet getting enough crude from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), required for effective optimization of its plant.
The Refinery Management, in a release signed by Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina said the facility’s contention with NNPCL is not that the Corporation does not supply it with crude at all but that it’s not by a full complement.
“We, therefore, still insist that we are 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,” Dangote said in the release by Chiejina.
Clarifying that his company has “never accused NNPC of not supplying…us with crude,” Chiejina stressed: “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: “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.”
