Energy sector stakeholders, under the aegis of Energy Reforms Advocates of Nigeria, ERAN, on Sunday raised an alarm over an alleged plan by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, to cut crude supply to Dangote Refinery.
This, they said, will force the facility to operate below capacity and undermine its ability to meet domestic demand.
The Matrix reports that NNPCL currently allocates 300,000 barrels of crude per day to Dangote Refinery, under the Federal Government’s naira-for-crude initiative.
However, there have been reports that the NNPCL may adjust its crude allocation to Dangote Refinery following the coming onstream of the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries. The Port Harcourt and Warri refineries currently operate at a combined capacity of about 135,000 barrels per day.
However, in a statement on Sunday, ERAN led by Daniel Clarke, said the NNPCL plans to cut the supply of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in a bid to force the facility to operate below capacity and undermine its ability to meet domestic demand.
According to ERAN, the alleged plan by the NNPCL would lead to increased reliance on fuel imports, higher costs and a return to fuel scarcity and the attendant queues across the country.
The energy sector stakeholders further alleged that a cabal within the NNPCL is unsettled by the Dangote Refinery’s success, which threatens to expose their long-standing inefficiencies and corrupt practices.
According to ERAN, the cabal has perfected a plot to frustrate the refinery’s operations and portray it as unreliable.
“The recent news that NNPCL may cut crude oil supply to the Dangote Refinery and other local refineries is a cause for alarm. This decision, if implemented, would be patently unjustifiable and strategically detrimental to the refinery’s operational efficacy, thereby subverting Nigeria’s quest for energy self-sufficiency.
“This move appears to be a deliberate and orchestrated attempt to undermine the Dangote Refinery, which has been operating at full capacity, through a concerted and compound action.
“It Is particularly perplexing that this decision comes on the heels of reviving dormant refineries, which had been in a state of disrepair for an extended period, and were allegedly utilized as conduits for embezzling billions of naira without any meaningful efforts to resuscitate them.
“The sudden pronouncement that these refineries will soon become fully operational, followed by the surreptitious maneuvering to drastically curtail the allocation to the Dangote Refinery, raises pernicious concerns about the motivations underlying this decision.
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“Evidently, the corrupt cabal within NNPCL is unsettled by their inability to dictate the prices at which Dangote Refinery sells its products. By reducing crude allocation, they aim to frustrate its operations and portray it as unreliable.
“Also, despite the production of AGO and Jet-A1 that exceeds the current daily consumption of petroleum products in Nigeria by the Dangote Refinery, against agreed terms, the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) allegedly continued to issue import licenses to NNPCL, Matrix, and other companies for importing petroleum products such as Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Jet Fuel (aviation turbine fuel) into Nigeria,” parts of the statement read.
