The Dangote Oil Refinery has denied a report that it was reselling cargoes of crude oil bought from the United States and Nigeria to other traders.
The spokesperson for the Dangote Group, Tony Chiejina, described the report as outright falsehood in an interview with The PUNCH.
Reuters had reported that three of the four trade sources familiar with the matter said the reoffer was linked to technical problems at the refinery.
But Chiejina said the refinery is still sourcing for crude from Angola and Libya and the crude distillation unit is in good condition.
“Outright falsehood. We are sourcing more crude from Angola and Libya. Also, our crude distillation unit is functioning perfectly well. You may wish to visit the refinery even today or tomorrow,” he told our correspondent on Saturday.
In a follow-up statement on Saturday, Chiejina also urged the public to disregard such news as it only intends to scuttle the refinery.
“Our attention has been drawn to a misleading report suggesting that our refinery’s crude distillation unit (CDU) is experiencing issues and that we are reselling crude oil.
“We categorically deny these claims. The Dangote refinery is not authorized to sell crude oil purchased from Nigeria, and our CDU is fully operational and functioning optimally.
“We advise the public to disregard these false narratives, which are likely driven by interests opposed to the local refining of fuels,” he said.
The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery started operations earlier this year, with complaints about crude shortage.
Sources had said cargoes of Nigerian Escravos and Forcados were among the crude grades offered as well as US WTI Midland.
Recall that the Vice President, Oil & Gas, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr DVG Edwin recently alleged that the IOCs operating in Nigeria had consistently frustrated the company’s requests for locally produced crude as feedstock for its refining process.
He said the IOCs were deliberately and willfully frustrating the refinery’s efforts to buy local crude by hiking the cost above the market price by $6, thereby forcing the refinery to import crude from countries as far as the US, with its attendant high costs.
Edwin said, “It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our petroleum refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for a ridiculous and humongous premium or they simply state that crude is not available.
“At some point, we paid $6 over and above the market price. This has forced us to reduce our output as well as import crude from countries as far as the US, increasing our cost of production.
“It appears that the objective of the IOCs is to ensure that Nigeria remains a country, which exports crude oil and imports refined petroleum products. They are keen on exporting the raw materials to their home countries, creating employment and wealth for their countries, adding to their Gross Domestic Product, and dumping the expensive refined products into Nigeria, thus making us dependent on imported products.
