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Devakumar Edwin, the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), has accused International Oil Companies, IOCs, of frustrating the Dangote Refinery’s commencement of fuel supply by selling crude oil at higher prices.
Edwin disclosed this at a recent one-day training for journalists.
He stressed that the IOCs were intentionally obstructing the refinery’s efforts to purchase local crude by inflating premium prices above market rates, compelling the refinery to import crude from distant countries like the United States, leading to significantly higher costs.
“While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, is trying its best to allocate 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,” Edwin said.
Recall that despite the order by the NUPRC to sell crude oil first to local refineries before exporting to foreign countries, Dangote Refinery has continued to lament the non-availability of the product.
In June, in an interview with CNN, Aliko Dangote said that IOCs were refusing to comply with the Commission’s order on crude supply to local refineries.
Dangote Refinery had sought to buy crude oil on several occasions from the US.
It recently shifted its commencement data for fuel supply between July 10th-15th, 2024, from June over what the company termed as minor challenges.
On Sunday, Brent Crude and West Taxes Intermediate (US) were sold at $85.17 and $80.65, respectively, according to Oil Prices Date.
Meanwhile, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the price of fuel increased to N769.62 in May 2024 from N702 the previous month.
