Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin, has accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of sabotaging the Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.
Edwin said the IOCs are intentionally obstructing the refinery’s efforts to purchase local crude.
This, he said the firms do by inflating premium prices above market rates, compelling the refinery to import crude from distant countries leading to significantly higher costs.
Edwin made the revelation while speaking to a group of Energy Editors at a one-day training programme organised by the Dangote Group.
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He said: “While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude.
“It would be recalled that the NUPRC, recently met with crude oil producers as well as refinery owners in Nigeria, in a bid to ensure full adherence to Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligations (DCSO), as enunciated under section 109(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails.
“It Is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/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.”
This comes days after the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Dangote Group Aliko Dangote, said local and foreign mafia tried several times to sabotage his $19 billion refinery from coming to fruition.
Speaking at the Afreximbank annual meetings (AAN) and AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in Nassau, The Bahamas, Dangote said several entities did everything to sabotage the 650,000 barrels per day facility.
Dangote said he was aware that resistance would always exist, but he did not anticipate it being so harsh.
“Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact. The local and foreign mafia tried several times to sabotage the refinery from coming to fruition,” he said.
