… says refinery still at pre-commissioning stage
…Dangote wants Authority to compel all marketers to buy its products
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA is steaming over the allegations that it was trying to scuttle the efforts of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company regarding refining crude oil locally.
The Authority has debunked this insinuation stating that there is no way it would do such a thing. It noted that the allegations were unfounded and far from the truth.
The chief Executive officer (CEO) of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, while addressing recent developments in the industry on Tuesday, stated that all the media harps whereby the public is being misinformed about the reality on the ground was orchestrated to make the Authority dance to the tune of certain individual and company.
He said that Dangote Refinery is still at the pre-commissioning stage and that it has not been licensed yet. “It is about 45 percent completed.”
He said the country cannot depend heavily on one refinery to feed itself.
According to the Authority CEO, Dangote Refinery is asking the agency to suspend or stop the importation of Automative Gas Oil (AGO), otherwise known as diesel and Kerosene, and direct all marketers to its refinery to buy the products.
“This is not good for the nation in terms of energy security and it is also not good for the market because of monopoly.”
In terms of quality, he said presently the AGO produced in the country in terms of sulphur content, quality is the lowest as far as the West African requirement of 50PPM is concerned. Dangote Refinery, as well as other refineries like WalterSmith, Aradal Refineries are producing between 650 to 1200 PPM. So in terms of quality, their quality is much inferior to those imported to the country.
In recent times, Senators, Media personalities, and other professional groups have visited the Dangote Refineries with each group coming out to blame international oil companies, government agencies, oil Marketers, and mafia groups, alleging that they are making efforts to frustrate the refinery project.