Dangote decries lingering domestic crude supply issues
Dangote Industries Limited has said it is still unable to secure enough domestic crude supply for its 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery, urging the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to intervene.
The company said this in a statement on Thursday in which it said its attention had been drawn to media reports alleging that the Dangote Refinery had backtracked by acknowledging that Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) supplied about 60% of the 50 million barrels lifted by the refinery.
It said: “To clarify, we have never accused NNPC of not supplying us with crude. 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.
“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
“We therefore still insist that we are unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge NUPRC to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA.”
