By Abiola Olawale
The crisis between Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, and key stakeholders in the oil and gas sector including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)has continued to escalate as the business mogul has announced his willingness to sell his multibillion-dollar Dangote refinery located in Lagos State.
The Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group said he is willing to sell off his refinery to the state-owned energy company, NNPC Limited if the accusations of being a monopolist persist.
Dangote, who spoke in an interview with Premium Times on Sunday, said he has been the subject of baseless accusations because of what he described as his “enthusiasm for Nigeria.”
He asserted that he would willingly divest the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery to the national oil company, NNPC if the authorities within the oil and gas industry persisted in making unfounded accusations against him.
“Let them (NNPCL) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can. They have labelled me a monopolist. That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s OK. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way,” Dangote said in the interview.
Dangote added that despite Nigeria’s long-standing fuel crisis and the $19 billion refinery’s potential to resolve it, there are vested interests unhappy with the project who are willing to undermine its success.
The New Diplomat reports that Dangote’s 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery, which became operational last year after a decade-long construction period, cost $19 billion—more than double the initial estimate.
It was envisioned to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imported fuel and save up to 30% of the country’s foreign exchange spent on imports. However, the project has faced significant challenges, including supply chain issues and regulatory disputes.
It would be recalled that the crisis became public knowledge after the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Group, Devakumar Edwin, recently accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of allowing marketers to import substandard fuel.
Edwin also accused International Oil Companies of refusing to sell crude oil to Dangote refinery, adding that the company buys crude from IOCs at $6 above the market price.
However, the Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, countered that diesel from Dangote’s plant contained high levels of sulphur, harmful to engines and the environment.
Ahmed had said that Nigeria cannot depend on products from the Dangote refinery, revealing that products from the 650,000 barrels refinery are inferior and substandard in quality.
In response, Dangote invited members of the House of Representatives to tour the refinery and witness lab tests comparing the sulphur content of its diesel with imported samples.
The tests according to Dangote revealed that Dangote’s diesel had a sulphur content of 87.6 ppm, significantly lower than the imported samples, which had levels exceeding 1800 ppm and 2000 ppm.
Dangote explained that the result does not only show the reality of products from his refinery, but it also shows that substandard petroleum products are being imported into the country and sold to unsuspecting Nigerians.
