Mr Devakumar Edwin, the Vice President of Dangote Oil and Gas Industries, has accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of trying to frustrate the survival of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.
Edwin told the newsmen in Lagos on Sunday.
Edwin alleged that the IOCs were deliberately and wilfully frustrating the refinery’s efforts to buy local crude by jerking up high premium price above the market price.
He claimed that this forced Dangote to import crude from countries as far as the United States, with its attendant high costs.
Edwin lamented the activity of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in granting licences, indiscriminately, to marketers to import dirty refined products into the country.
He said, “The federal government issued 25 licences to build refinery, and we are the only one that delivered on promise.
“In effect, we deserve every support from the government. It is good to note that from the start of production, more than 3.5 billion litres, which represents 90 per cent of our production, have been exported.
“We are calling on the federal government and regulators to give us the necessary support in order to create jobs and prosperity for the nation,” he said.
According to him: “While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude.
“It would be recalled that the NUPRC, recently met with crude oil producers as well as refineries owners in Nigeria, in a bid to ensure full adherence to Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligations (DCSO), as enunciated under section 109(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/humongous premium or, they simply state that crude is not available.
“At some point, we paid six dollars over and above the market price. This has forced us to reduce our output as well as import crude from countries as far as the US, increasing our cost of production.
“It appears that the objective of the IOCs is to ensure that Nigeria remains a country which exports Crude Oil and imports refined Petroleum Products.
“ They (IOCs) are keen on exporting the raw materials to their home countries, creating employment and wealth for their countries, adding to their GDP, and dumping the expensive refined products into Nigeria – thus making us to be dependent on imported products,” he added.
Edwin said: “It is the same strategy the multinationals have been adopting in every commodity, making Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa to be facing unemployment and poverty, while they create wealth for themselves at our expense.
“This is exploitation – pure and simple. Unfortunately, the country is also playing into their hands by continuing to issue import licences, at the expense of our economy, and at the cost of the health of the Nigerians who are exposed to carcinogenic products.
“In spite of the fact that we are producing and bringing out diesel into the market, complying with ECOWAS regulations and standards, licences are being issued, in large quantities, to traders who are buying the extremely high sulphur diesel from Russia and dumping it in the Nigerian Market.
“Since the US, EU and UK imposed a Price Cap Scheme from 5th February, 2023 on Russian Petroleum Products, a large number of vessels are waiting near Togo with Russian ultra-high sulphur diesel and, they are being purchased and dumped into the Nigerian Market.
“In fact, some of the European countries were so alarmed about the carcinogenic effect of the extra high sulphur diesel being dumped into the Nigerian market that countries like Belgium and the Netherlands imposed a ban on such fuel being exported from its country, into West Africa, recently.
“It is sad that the country is giving import licences for such dirty diesel to be imported into Nigeria when we have more than adequate petroleum refining capacity locally,” he said.
Dangote Refinery is Africa’s largest of its type, the 650,000 barrel-per-day
Dangote refinery could be a game changer for Nigeria’s economy when fully operational by helping end the country’s reliance on fuel imports.
The initial run will be for the production of diesel and aviation fuel before moving on to petrol output in July 2024.
Though one of Africa’s largest oil producers and the continent’s top economy, Nigeria relies almost totally on imported fuel and diesel because of a lack of refining capacity.
Fuel imports and subsidies caused a huge drain on foreign exchange when Nigeria was struggling with dwindling oil revenues and foreign currency shortages.