Newscenter Media News The management of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has refused to back down over claims that International Oil Companies (IOCs) are frustrating its quest to purchase crude feedstock for the Dangote refinery.
The operators of the 650, 000 barrels per day refinery are insisting that IOCs are frustrating its quest to purchase crude oil due to overpricing.
The company was reacting to a claim by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) that IOCs were not frustrating the refinery.
The Chief Executive of the NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, had in a statement said the IOCs are willing to sell to Dangote Refinery.
He said: “No producer is refusing to make crude available to the Dangote refinery.”
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However, in a counter statement on Wednesday, the Vice-President of Oil and Gas at DIL, Devakumar Edwin, said the implementation of the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) guidelines would allow the refinery to deal directly with companies producing crude oil in Nigeria.
He said: “Aside from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), to date, we have only purchased crude directly from one other local producer (Sapetro). All other producers refer us to their international trading arms.
“These international trading arms are non-value adding middlemen who sit abroad and earn margin from crude being produced and consumed in Nigeria. They are not bound by Nigerian laws and do not pay tax in Nigeria on the unjustifiable margin they earn.
“The trading arm of one of the IOCs refused to sell to us directly and asked us to find a middleman who would buy from them and then sell to us at a margin. We dialogued with them for 9 months and in the end, we had to escalate to NUPRC who helped resolve the situation.
“When we entered the market to purchase our crude requirement for August, the international trading arms told us that they had entered their Nigerian cargoes into a Pertamina (the Indonesia National Oil Company) tender, and we had to wait for the tender to conclude to see what is still available.”
By: Babajide Okeowo
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