A Nigerian economist Kelvin Emmanuel has defended the quality of the Dangote refinery’s diesel, noting that its output is significantly superior to that of imported diesel.
Emmanuel said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday, while expressing disappointment in the NMDPRA’s stance on the Dangote’s refinery, particularly the claim that Dangote aims to stop the importation of petrol and diesel.
“I would say that the Dangote refinery is going to wipe off the importation business. The test that has been done at the Dangote refinery produces diesel at 87.6 parts per million. The test that was done for total energies downstream and metrics energy, total produced about 1824 parts per million diesel for imported diesel into Nigeria and metrics energy produced about 2,254 parts per million for imported diesel into Nigeria.
“So, his diesel is way better than what is imported into Nigeria and if the national assembly wants to go a step further, they can recruit SGS which is one of the reputable gasoline testing firms in the world and also recruit PWC or KPMG to come and do an audit of the third-party rubbing roundtable certifications process for AGO and gasoline.”
“The question is Nigeria has been importing petroleum products for 52 years. In the last 20 something years, the government has spent 12 trillion in turn around maintenance and the refineries are still dead. In my opinion, I don’t think those refineries should be relied on anyways. So, if an entrepreneur takes up the challenge of investing 20 billion dollars to build a refinery, the government should support him.”
“I am actually surprised that the NMDPRA boss still has a job. Isn’t it the goal to reduce or eliminate the need for imports? Nigeria spends $2.4 billion monthly on energy imports. With a fully operational Dangote refinery, we could produce 49.4 million liters of PMS, 26 million liters of diesel, and 12 million liters of Jet A1 daily.”
He also attributed the blame for the Dangote feedstock shortage to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPCL) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), rather than to the International Oil Companies (IOCs),
“I do not agree that the IOCs are to blame for the situation with the lack of feedstock. I think the blame points directly to the NUPRC and the NNPCL and the fact that a lot of the Nigerian crude oil has been negotiated on crude oil swap agreements or fossil agreements for reserved back loans that has been taken and then domestic crude oil supply obligations to refineries that, in my opinion, are not existent. The IOCs have what they call cost oil. They have 40%.
“So, if the IOCs pay their royalties and tax oil to NNPC and they fulfil their domestic crude oil supply obligations in line with section 109 of the PIA. The IOCs do not owe the Dangote refinery a right of first refusal for its feedstock because every crude oil they get in Nigeria actually is exported in fossil agreements that they already have with clients years ahead. So, I think we need to situate the blame where it belongs and it belongs on the shoulders of NNPCL.”
He urged the National Assembly and the President to question NNPCL’s inability to provide Dangote refinery with the $1.7 billion feedstock required to finalise the acquisition of 20% of the Dangote Refinery.
“So, these are the questions the national assembly and the president should ask the NNPCL; why were you not able to pay the 1.7bn dollars in feedstock to complete the acquisition of 20% that will make you own 5th of the largest refinery in Africa and arguably the world, that has the potential to produce 28bn dollars in revenue on a yearly basis.”
The Economist highlighted that between 2019 and 2024, NNPCL has borrowed 12 billion dollars through Afrexim, staking 250 million barrels of crude oil as collateral in reserved base lending for that loan.
“Between 2019 and 2024, NNPC has borrowed 12 billion dollars through Afrexim and they have staked about 250 million barrels of crude oil as collateral in reserved base lending for that loan.”
Chioma Kalu
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