According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, foreign oil corporations will be required to supply crude oil to the Dangote oil refinery.
Olaide Shonola, the NUPRC’s spokesperson, stated that the commission was stepping in to guarantee Dangote and other refineries in the nation will be able to purchase crude locally.
In response to the chairman of the Dangote Group’s assertion that foreign oil companies were unwilling to supply crude to the refinery, Shonola made this statement. According to Shonola, the NUPRC will issue explicit directions for the IOCs to sell to the Dangote refinery.
“We’ve been intervening and intervening. I am sure you’re aware of a recent meeting that was held with them on domestic crude oil supply. We will keep engaging them, NUPRC has been doing that.
“I can’t say we will force them, but as the regulator, we can mandate. And that’s what we are doing, giving clear directives that this must be done. We will just keep on engaging and you will agree with me that most of these things have to be planned. We will keep on engaging. We will do our regulatory function in that area,” she stated.
Asked whether there would be sanctions, Shinola declined comments.
“We will mandate them, as in, give clear directives based on our regulatory functions,” she emphasised.
Aliko Dangote stated in a CNN interview that foreign oil companies in Nigeria were not prepared to supply crude oil to the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels.
He claimed that the multinational oil corporations were accustomed to selling crude for cash and were not prepared to cease. Despite the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd’s best efforts, according to Dangote, the IOCs preferred to sell their products abroad.
He said, “The NNPC is trying its hardest, but some of the IOCs are having trouble providing us with crude. Everyone is used to exporting, so nobody wants to stop exporting.”
The business tycoon claimed that the reason Africa was not expanding was because it sold raw commodities to the West and buys the same as finished goods.
“Africa is not going the way it should because we export raw materials and import finished goods. It doesn’t matter what it is, even if it is gold or whatever, raw material is always priced at a ridiculous amount compared to finished goods,” Dangote said.
He regretted that some individuals benefitting from oil import did not want the refinery to succeed.
Dangote disclosed that the refinery would take about 21 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria every month, adding that 21 ships of crude would no longer import or export oil into Africa
“Almost 21 ships will no longer leave the African continent, either from Nigeria or Angola, we will be able to take those crudes and be able to refine and distribute the product. I feel very proud as an African that we have been able to demonstrate that it can be done, and we’ve done it.
“If we take all the crudes from Nigeria, it means we will take 21 million barrels per month and that will also help in terms of reducing the C02 emissions. Rather than ships coming from Europe to bring in products, or the ships going out of Nigeria, 21 ships going out of Nigeria every month, and then you have the product coming into Nigeria. In totality, when you calculate, you are talking about 480 ships of 1 million barrels,” he noted.
In April, the NUPRC issued a new rule requiring oil producers to sell crude to domestic refineries before attending to foreign demands.
It appears the IOCs are not obeying this directive.
