The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL) has been accused of supplying insufficient crude oil to the refinery.
The Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Rabiu A. Umar, told journalists in Kano that NNPCL, “supplies only 33 percent of of crude to the refinery. We have to look elsewhere to source the remaining 67 percent to meet the refinery’s production capacity.”
According to him, its refinery is currently planning to source crude oil from Brazil and America, starting from August.
Rabi’u further stated that for the $20 billion refinery to meet its production demand, it must look for other sources of crude oil supply overseas as the NNPCL allocation is insufficient.
He said the refinery, which has the capacity of refining 650,000 per day, could not depend on short supply from the Nigeria’s oil company.
“First of all the refinery is here in Nigeria. We have the crude oil here in Nigeria. We thought we would get the crude oil here and refine it here in our refinery for the benefit of the country and the citizens.
“Ironically, the country takes the crude oil overseas for refining while we have a refinery, one of the biggest in the world.
“So, we will not stay idle. We have to look for other sources to meet our production capacity. If we get the crude oil supply here in the country we have no reason to go overseas.
“Even now, we are planning to take supply of crude oil from countries like Brazil and USA,” he said.
According to him, the refinery has commenced supplies to foreign countries since February, disclosing that they receive orders from different countries for supply, especially aviation fuel.
Rabi’u also revealed that the refinery needs 15 cargos of crude oil in September, “but NNPCL promised only five. We cannot explain the reason. And we do not want to belive it is an act of sabotage.”
He said: “The refinery should be celebrated and embraced by the government rather than painting it black as it is the biggest employer of labour with over 50,000 workers at the moment.
“We are here to defend ourselves and all the government narratives are not true. We urge the people to take samples of our products to ascertain their quality. We will not be deterred by the government’s criticism. We will continue until we reach the promised land.”
