FG Condemns Failure to Supply Crude to Dangote Refinery

In an effort to address concerns about the lack of crude oil for indigenous refiners, the Federal Government met with operators of domestic refineries on Wednesday.

The government expressed its disappointment and stated that it would be a national disgrace if the domestic crude obligations for the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery were not fulfilled. It emphasized the readiness of the Dangote refinery and urged for the provision of crude oil.

During the meeting with operators of domestic refineries, Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), a Federal Government agency, made this announcement in Abuja.

He mentioned, “We are fortunate to have the largest refinery in Africa, the Dangote refinery. It is ready to start operations. We have received a request from the refinery to ensure a steady supply of feedstock to the 650,000 barrels refinery. As a nation, it would be a disgrace if we fail to meet the feedstock requirements of the refinery.

“Therefore, this meeting is convened to collectively come up with solutions to address the feedstock issues faced by our domestic refineries. The objective is to transform the nation into a net exporter of refined products, rather than just a net exporter of crude oil without any value addition.”

Komolafe also mentioned that NUPRC had written to crude oil producers, requesting details on the volumes of committed and uncommitted crude oil in their possession.

“Unfortunately, some producers have not complied with this request. We require responses to analyze and advise the commission appropriately on the available and non-committed barrels of crude oil.”

“This will enable us to compare it with the total domestic feedstock requirements and determine whether the non-committed volumes can meet our current domestic feedstock needs as a nation. That is where we currently stand.”

The NUPRC boss emphasized that domestic refining of crude oil would have a positive impact on the prices of refined petroleum products.

“We are a nation blessed with huge crude oil reserves, approximately 38 billion barrels. However, despite these reserves, we are still a net exporter of crude oil and a net importer of refined products.

“We are all aware of the negative impact our inability to meet our domestic refining obligations has had on our economy, particularly in terms of the under-recovery costs incurred during the fuel subsidy regime.

“Meeting our domestic refining obligations will significantly affect some of the associated costs in pricing refined products.

“Therefore, it is our responsibility as an industry to find a way to make Nigeria a net exporter of refined products. That is the main issue we are here to address,” stated the NUPRC boss.