Dangote Refinery: Civil Societies to Monitor NNPCL Crude Sales Compliance

 

● To set up a Situation Room in Abuja

A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) said at the weekend that they would set up a task force to monitor the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited’s (NNPCL) compliance with the presidential directive to sell crude oil to the Dangote refinery in naira.

 

Leaders of the 28 CSOs who visited the world’s largest single-train refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, in Lagos, said the decision by NNPCL and regulatory agencies was a clear indication that they had deliberately kept the country’s refineries in check so that they could continue to import petroleum products.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had intervened in the web of controversies that followed the Dangote Refinery-NNPCL standoff and had ordered the Corporation to henceforth sell crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in Naira.

Speaking on behalf of others, Solomon Adodo of Rise Up for A United Nigeria said his group saw a world-class facility and wondered how a government regulatory agency could side with importers of petroleum products when a local refinery is now available to bail the nation out of the foreign exchange quagmire that has sent prices of petroleum products skyrocketing.

He said civil society organizations have concluded to petition the Presidency on the need to adopt the Dangote refinery as a national resource to be used to free the country from the shackles of fuel imports while exporting crude oil.

He said: After going around to see this world-class project, we do not understand why the government would decide to turn against Nigerians in this way. But we are not that surprised, given our past experiences. Those who are profiting from our collective misfortune will not want the Dangote refinery to operate.

“We are ready to defend this facility with all our might as civil society organisations. We are not speaking on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of all Nigerians and on behalf of our homeland. It leaves much to be desired that a government agency with an oversight function to guide the growth of a project like this is now denigrating the same project. This is unfortunate.

“We have seen with our own eyes and have dispelled all doubts about the completion of this refinery and its readiness to meet all our national needs. We will expose them all. Anyone who is not ready to give Nigerians a new lease on life must give in. Now is the fight to finish.

“Going forward, we will set up an operations room to monitor the compliance of NNPCL with the directive of Mr. President that Dangote Refinery would be supplied with crude oil in Naira because we know that the enemies of the people would like to adopt another strategy to sabotage the presidential directive.

“It is criminal audacity for a government agency to brazenly denigrate a national asset like the Dangote refinery, more so when the government has four refineries and they are all moribund, how then would you treat a private investor who has committed everything to build a functional refinery much bigger than all four government-owned ones put together.

“Nigerians are not stupid; we all know what is happening here. They told us that after removing the fuel subsidy, market forces would force the price down, what a fallacy of market forces, here we are, the forces have only succeeded in pushing the price up. Now we have a local refinery that will save us, but they don’t want it to work. So Nigerians will benefit.”

Adodo said civil society organisations would carry out intensive advocacy to ensure that the government accedes to the demands of Nigerians, which are not limited to ensuring that crude oil is sold at the Dangote refinery in Naira, but also ensuring that Dangote fuel is available at petrol stations for Nigerians to purchase.

The group called on the management of Dangote Refinery not to be discouraged but to move forward, while the group would launch a serious campaign in favor of the refinery. “Even if it means we have to protest, we will do so. We cannot allow this international embarrassment to continue.”

He argued that all the monopoly claims against Dangote Refinery were just to give a bad name to a dog, and then hang him. What Dangote Refinery will represent is not monopoly, but poly people. We will write to the American Society of Engineers about this and to the European Union. We will maintain eternal vigilance.

Welcoming the group, the Vice Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, described the Dangote Refinery as a value-added facility as it will block the export of Nigerian crude oil and import of finished products, and questioned why the government would be against such a vision for Nigeria.

According to him, many African countries have minerals that do not add value to their economies because they are exported raw and the finished products are re-imported into the country, while the opposite should have been the order of the day.

“This is what Dangote Refinery seeks to correct, we have done the same in the cement and sugar sectors where Nigeria was a major importer of those products and with the advent of Dangote leading the government’s backward integration programme, others have entered the sector and together Nigeria is now exporting cement to other countries.

“What we want to do in Refinery, we have done in other companies, Nigeria was the largest importer of sugar, we came in and changed the narrative. We led the backward integration program of the federal government and now we produce sugar locally for domestic consumption and others have joined us. We did the same in cement by opening a manufacturing plant and today Nigeria exports cement to other countries.

“In a business that no one was interested in investing in, Dangote went into it determined to ensure that Nigeria no longer imports fuel, he invested massively and created the world’s largest single-train refinery. He said he would not take his money to Dubai or Swiss banks like others are doing, he decided to invest at home and now they say he wants to create a monopoly.

“We didn’t ask for any favors except that we wanted to buy crude oil to produce, first they said there was no crude oil, then they said we should pay a few dollars more than the prevailing market price of crude oil. And this is a global market where you can monitor crude oil prices at any time. We resorted to buying crude oil from Brazil and the United States. Then they said we shouldn’t announce the price of the products.

“Even the US, which is the main proponent of free market economy, protects its local industries by imposing huge duties on foreign imports just to protect local industries. This is a man who Saudi Aramco once approached to come and tender its refinery in Saudi Arabia, promising a steady supply of crude oil. Abu Dahbi also invited him to do the same on their soil, but he refused insisting that he would build at home, now he has done so and a facility that should add value to the Nigerian economy has been frustrated.”

Dangote’s vice president said the company will continue to focus on its corporate strategy, which is to add value to the Nigerian economy through investment and job creation for the vast Nigerian masses. According to him, Nigeria can only consume 45% of the refinery capacity, while the remaining 55% will be exported and bring in badly needed foreign exchange to the country.

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