Mohammed Shosanya
Dangote Refinery has said that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission,NUPRC,is not doing enough to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation in line with the Petroleum Industry Act,PIA.
Anthony Chiejina,Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer,Dangote Industries Limited,who disclosed this in a statement,said the agency’s reluctance caused it the opportunity to receive its full crude requirement from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the International Oil Companies.
The statement clarified that the company never accused NNPC of not supplying Dangote Refinery with crude.
It noted that,for September,the company’s requirement is 15 cargoes,of which NNPC allocated six.
It added:”Despite appealing to NUPRC, we’ve been unable to secure the remaining cargoes. When we approached IOCs producing in Nigeria, they redirected us to their international trading arms or responded that their cargoes were committed.
“Consequently, we often purchase the same Nigerian crude from international traders at an additional $3-$4 premium per barrel which translates to $3-$4 million per cargo
“We,therefore,still insist that we are unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge NUPRC to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA”.