In the midst of an ongoing crisis, Dangote Refinery has disclosed that it is planning to import crude oil from Brazil and America since the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, or NNPC, is not meeting its production requirement.
This was disclosed by Rabiu A. Umar, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, during an interview with reporters in Kano. Umar said that the refinery needs to go elsewhere for the remaining 67% of its crude supply in order to satisfy its production capacity, as NNPC only provides 33% of the oil to the refinery. He stated that the refinery, which can process 650,000 barrels of oil a day, could not rely on the Nigerian oil company’s limited supply.
By August, the refinery had completed plans to supply crude oil from the United States and Brazil, according to Umar. “The refinery is located here in Nigeria, to start. Here in Nigeria, we have crude oil.For the good of the nation and its people, we intended to obtain the crude oil here and refine it in our refinery.Ironically, we have one of the largest refineries in the world, but the nation ships its crude oil abroad to be refined.
Thus, we won’t do nothing. To reach our production capacity, we must explore for alternative sources.If there is enough crude oil available domestically, there would be no need to export.”As of right now, we intend to import crude oil from the United States and Brazil,” he stated.
He said that the refinery has been supplying other nations since February and that they get orders for supplies, particularly aviation gasoline, from many nations. The refinery requires 15 cargoes of crude oil in September, but NNPCL only committed to deliver 5. The Chief Commercial Officer bemoaned this and said they saw the government’s indifferent treatment of the refinery as sabotage.
He said the government should embrace and celebrate the refinery instead of demonising it because it employs more than 50,000 people and is currently the largest employer in the country. He stressed that the refinery had gotten off to a good start despite the misleading narratives spread by the government, as seen by the world-class quality of its refined products.
He claimed that even the House of Representatives, led by its speaker, had visited the refinery, noticed the improvements, and was pleased with the calibre of the output.”We are here to defend ourselves and all the government narratives are not true,” the official added. We strongly advise consumers to obtain samples of our goods in order to evaluate their quality.
The condemnation from the government won’t stop us. We’re going to keep going till we get to the promised land,” Umar declared.
Remember that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the NNPCL, and the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, were embroiled in a legal battle that involved accusations of monopoly, the supply of crude for the refinery, the importation of subpar fuel, and ownership of blending plants in Malta.
