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NNPCL is currently the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria,
a task which it had shouldered for several years. Other oil marketers stopped
importing petrol due to their inability to access the United States dollars at
the official rate.
NNPCL also owned 20 per cent stake in the Dangote Refinery.
The 650,000 barrels per day crude oil processing refinery was inaugurated on
May 22, 2023 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, who described the facility
as a game-changer.
Also at the inauguration, the Founder/Chairman, Dangote
Group, Aliko Dangote, said the facility would put an end to the inflow of toxic
substandard petroleum products into Nigeria, adding that the refinery would
meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s fuel needs.
Dangote also stated that the refinery would start delivering
refined products to the Nigerian market from late July or Early August this
year.
When contacted by our correspondent and asked about what
would happen to the NNPCL fuel imports programme once the Dangote Refinery
began to push out products in August, the national oil firm’s spokesperson,
Garba-Deen Muhammad, said this would change.
He said, “NNPC Limited is bringing in products from outside
Nigeria as a matter of necessity, not as a matter of choice. We would have
preferred that we produce here, refine here and we sell and provide the energy
security that the country needs.
“Because of the circumstances that surround our refineries,
we cannot allow the country to be grounded. So we have to buy wherever we can
get and sell. So if Dangote products are available, why should we not buy from
Dangote?
“There is absolutely no reason. And that is the reason why
we are interested in the Dangote Refinery. We are co-owners, shouldn’t we do
business with our partners rather than do it with other people?”
Muhammad explained that the NNPCL would be supplying crude
oil to the Dangote Refinery based on business agreement between both parties,
and that this would be in accordance with the international price of crude.
“NNPC owns 20 per cent of that asset and we have an
agreement with Dangote that we will supply the refinery with crude. So as soon
as Dangote begins to request for crude to pay for it, NNPC is prepared to
supply the crude as a business transaction.
“We have been selling crude to different parts of the world
for decades, and it is not whether we will sell it to Dangote, for why won’t we
sell to Dangote when we are selling to other refineries and countries?”
NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, recently
stated that the supply of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day by the national
oil firm to the Dangote Refinery would start once the facility commenced
operations.
Marketers demand pricing template
Meanwhile, oil marketers said the cost of refined petroleum
products to be produced by the Dangote Refinery would not be known at the
moment until the refinery released its pricing template.
They expressed hope that the refinery would improve the
petroleum products’ supply situation in Nigeria, but noted that the cost of
white products would only be determined by the pricing template of the
facility.
The Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association
of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, said, “By the time it starts
producing, we would see how implementation is going to be and his template. We
cannot say much about the refinery until it starts. So let us see the mode of
production, how it is going to look like in terms of its pricing template.”
Also speaking on the issue, the President, Petroleum
Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said
the pricing template from the new refinery would guide operators on what would
be the cost of refined petroleum products from the facility.