Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, says some international oil companies (IOCs) are struggling to supply crude to Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

Dangote spoke on CNN’s ‘Connecting Africa’ programme, which aired on June 3.

Asked if domestic oil companies have been supplying crude to the refinery, he said “there are challenges”.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has said it would mandate international oil companies to supply crude oil to Dangote oil refinery.

The spokesperson for the NUPRC, Olaide Shonola, said the commission was intervening to ensure the local sale of crude to Dangote and other refineries in the country.

Shonola stated this while reacting to a claim by the Chairman of the Dangote Group that the international oil companies were not ready to sell crude to the refinery.

In an interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday, Shonola said the NUPRC would mandate the IOCs to sell to the Dangote refinery, with clear directives that this must be done.

“We’ve been intervening and intervening. I am sure you’re aware of a recent meeting that was held with them on domestic crude oil supply. We will keep engaging them, NUPRC has been doing that.

“I can’t say we will force them, but as the regulator, we can mandate. And that’s what we are doing, giving clear directives that this must be done. We will just keep on engaging and you will agree with me that most of these things have to be planned. We will keep on engaging. We will do our regulatory function in that area,” she stated.

Asked whether there would be sanctions, Shinola declined comments.

“We will mandate them, as in, give clear directives based on our regulatory functions,” she emphasised.

In an interview with CNN, Aliko Dangote said international oil companies in Nigeria were not ready to sell crude oil to the 650,000 barrels capacity oil refinery.

According to him, the international oil companies were used to exporting crude for foreign exchange and they were not ready to stop.

Dangote said though the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd was doing its best to supply feedstock to the refinery, the IOCs wanted to sell outside the country.

“The NNPC is doing its best, but some of the IOCs, they are struggling to give us crude, everybody is used to exporting and nobody wants to stop exporting,” he stated.

The business mogul said Africa was not growing because it sells raw materials to the Western world and buys the same as finished goods.

“Africa is not going the way it should because we export raw materials and import finished goods. It doesn’t matter what it is, even if it is gold or whatever, raw material is always priced at a ridiculous amount compared to finished goods,” Dangote said.

He regretted that some individuals benefitting from oil import did not want the refinery to succeed.

Dangote disclosed that the refinery would take about 21 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria every month, adding that 21 ships of crude would no longer import or export oil into Africa

“Almost 21 ships will no longer leave the African continent, either from Nigeria or Angola, we will be able to take those crudes and be able to refine and distribute the product. I feel very proud as an African that we have been able to demonstrate that it can be done, and we’ve done it.

“If we take all the crudes from Nigeria, it means we will take 21 million barrels per month and that will also help in terms of reducing the C02 emissions.  Rather than ships coming from Europe to bring in products, or the ships going out of Nigeria, 21 ships going out of Nigeria every month, and then you have the product coming into Nigeria.  In totality, when you calculate, you are talking about 480 ships of 1 million barrels,” he noted.

In April, the NUPRC issued a new rule requiring oil producers to sell crude to domestic refineries before attending to foreign demands.

It appears the IOCs are not obeying this directive.