“This Must be Done”: FG Gives Order to Oil Companies That Refuse to Sell Crude to Dangote
- Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission said it is working to ensure that Dangote get enough crude supply
- The commission said while it cannot force international oil companies to supply, the companies will be mandated to provide crude
- This came after Dangote raised the alarm that he was not getting fuel from the international oil companies who prefer to sell abroad
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over 3-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission stated that it will mandate foreign oil corporations to provide crude oil to the Dangote oil refinery.
Source: UGC
Olaide Shonola, the NUPRC spokesperson, stated that the commission was stepping in to guarantee that domestic crude sales to Dangote and other refineries would continue.
Shonola made this statement in response to the Dangote Group chairman's assertion that foreign oil corporations were unwilling to supply the refinery with crude.
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During a Tuesday interview with the Punch, Shonola stated that the NUPRC would issue unambiguous guidelines requiring the IOCs to sell to the Dangote refinery.
He said:
“We’ve been intervening and intervening. I am sure you’re aware of a recent meeting 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."
Dangote said IOC not selling fuel
Aliko Dangote earlier claimed a CNN interview that foreign oil companies in Nigeria were not prepared to supply crude oil to his refinery, which has 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.
The billionaire said despite efforts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, the IOCs prefer to sell their products abroad.
“The NNPC is doing its best, but some of the IOCs, they are struggling to give us crude, everybody is used to exporting and nobody wants to stop exporting."
He also said Africa is not achieving the desired growth because it sells raw materials and purchases completed items at the same prices as the West.
He lamented that some people who benefited from oil import did not want the refinery to be successful.
According to Dangote, the refinery would receive roughly 21 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria each month, and 21 ships would no longer be used to import or export crude into Africa.
Recall that 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.
Dangote speaks on opening first African refinery
In a related development, Legit.ng reported that Dangote explained why no refining facility was built in Africa in the previous 35 years.
In an interview, Dangote said although he had constructed a $19 billion refinery, he would have given it a second thought if he had realised| ahead of time how challenging it would be to build a plant that scales on the continent.
He maintained that Africans would need to develop the continent on their own, as foreign investments and aid would not be sufficient to build Africa.
Proofreading by James Ojo Adakole, journalist and copy editor at Legit.ng.
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Source: Legit.ng
