Mr Edwin, had last month accused IOCs in Nigeria of doing everything to frustrate the survival of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals
The Vice President, Oil and Gas, at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin, on Wednesday insisted that International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria have consistently frustrated the company’s requests for locally produced crude as feedstock for its refining process.
The management of Dangote Industries Limited disclosed it in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Edwin’s response came against the background of a statement by the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe.
Mr Komolafe had in an interview on ARISE News TV said that “it is ‘erroneous’ for one to say that the IOCs are refusing to make crude oil available to domestic refiners, as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has a stipulation that calls for a willing buyer willing seller relationship.”
Last month, Mr Edwin accused IOCs in Nigeria of doing everything to frustrate the survival of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.
He said the IOCs are deliberately frustrating the refinery’s efforts to buy local crude by jerking up high premium price above the market price, thereby forcing it to import crude from countries as far as the United States, with its attendant high costs.
On Wednesday Mr Edwin noted that the NUPRC has been very supportive to the Dangote Refinery as it intervened several times to help the facility secure crude supply.
However, he said the NUPRC chief executive was probably misquoted by some people hence his statement that IOCs did not refuse to sell to the company.
“To set the records straight, we would like to recap the facts below. Aside from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), to date we have only purchased crude directly from only one other local producer (Sapetro). All other producers refer us to their international trading arms,” Mr Edwin said.
He explained that these international trading arms are non-value adding middlemen who sit abroad and earn margin from crude being produced and consumed in Nigeria.
“They are not bound by Nigerian laws and do not pay tax in Nigeria on the unjustifiable margin they earn. The trading arm of one of the IOCs refused to sell to us directly and asked us to find a middleman who will buy from them and then sell to us at a margin. We dialogued with them for nine months and in the end, we had to escalate to NUPRC who helped resolve the situation,” Mr Edwin said.