• ‘Dangote’s AGO fails to meet West Africa’s 50PPM sulfur standard’
• Reps probe alleged plot by IOC to frustrate refinery, NNPCL’s failure to meet 20% share
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has debunked repeated claims of scuttling operations at the Dangote Refinery, clarifying that the refinery hasn’t been licensed yet but is currently at 45 per cent pre-commissioning license stage.
Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, who made this known while speaking with journalists yesterday, said the regulatory authority would soon issue a fully valid operating license to Dangote as only three refineries in the country have valid licenses to operate.
Dangote Group had also accused NMDPRA of granting licences indiscriminately to marketers to import dirty refined products into the country. But Farouk stated that the country cannot depend solely on one refinery. He mentioned that Dangote is requesting a halt or suspension of all petroleum product imports, particularly Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel and Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), and wants marketers to source from its own refinery.
Ahmed also raised concerns about the consistency and standardisation of the refinery’s output, stating that its product quality was inferior to that of imported products. In terms of quality, he said Dangote’s current AGO has the lowest quality sulfur content, failing to meet West Africa’s requirement of 50 parts per million (PPM).
MEANWHILE, the House of Representatives has resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the claim by the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited no longer owns a 20 per cent stake in the refinery.
The House will also investigate an alleged plot by International Oil Companies (IOCs) to frustrate the operations of the refinery. The lawmakers further agreed to probe allegations that NMDPRA was still granting import licences, indiscriminately, to marketers to import sub-standard refined petroleum products into the country.
Adopting a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, the lawmakers urged the Minister of Petroleum Resources, and all relevant MDAs to immediately take urgent steps and intervene in the matter of crude oil supply to Dangote Refinery.
Dangote had during a press briefing at the refinery announced that the NNPCL no longer owns a 20 per cent stake in Dangote Refinery, a statement which was confirmed by the NNPCL. According to Dangote, the NNPCL only owns 7.2 per cent of the refinery due to the NNPC’s failure to pay the balance of their share, which was due last month in June.
Presenting his motion, Chinda noted that despite Nigeria being a major oil-producing and exporting country, the country has for several years continued to import refined petroleum products from other countries to the detriment of the economic well-being of the country.
He said the construction of Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) was Africa’s largest refinery, and the world’s seventh largest by capacity, saying its construction was meant to alleviate the petroleum products needs and accompanying pains faced by Nigerians
He warned that unless urgent steps are taken by the Federal Government to call IOCs to order, Dangote Refinery and its operations would be prematurely pushed/forced out of business and this would not be good for the country.
