Ireoluwa Adeniji 
Give a dog a bad name and hang him is an old English proverb that seems to fit into the stories swirling around the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) since the allegations credited to Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Refinery.
Alhaji Dangote who is going through the birth pangs of his refinery project had thrown the can at the NNPC over the difficulties facing his refining business. Dangote had complained that a cabal in the industry was frustrating his refinery and, as reported by an online newspaper, was quoted as saying: “Let them (NNPC Ltd) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can.
They have labelled me a monopolist. That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s okay. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way.”
It is not difficult to understand Dangote’s tantrums having put in about $20 billion into the refinery, especially when he has had to face up to problems getting crude oil supply on account of supply chain problems and is still worried about how to sell his products in the local market.
Nigerians indeed want an end to importation, what with its drain on foreign exchange and frequent scarcities. However, not a few were alarmed when the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the industry regulator, revealed that Dangote Refinery had requested that it ban importation since it was now producing the fuels required.
According to Farouk Ahmed: “Dangote is requesting that we suspend or stop importation, especially of AGO and DPK, and direct all marketers to his refinery. That is not good for the nation in terms of energy security, and it is not good for the market because of the monopoly.”
Curiously, Dangote has not refuted the monopoly allegations made by Ahmed, rather he alleged at the Federal House of Representatives that: “Some of the NNPC people and some traders have opened a blending plant somewhere off Malta”, insinuating that it was the reason this so called cabal does not want to stop importing fuel even now that he has a refinery in place.
In response, NNPC Ltd Group CEO, Mele Kyari said: “I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world with the exception of a local mini Agric venture. Neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC Ltd that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world.
I strongly recommend that such individuals be declared public and be made known to relevant government security agencies for necessary actions in view of the grave implications for national energy security.”
Casting the NNPC Ltd as an enemy when in truth the group under the leadership of Kyari has always pushed for the success of private refineries, including Dangote’s, came as a surprise to many.
This is because it was Kyari as NNPC Ltd GMD who pushed for NNPC’s investment in Dangote Refinery in 2021 at a time when the project was facing financing problems. Though the NNPC intended to buy 20 percent of the refinery, it eventually paid for 7.2 percent, because of a strategic realignment of its investment portfolio in the overriding national interest at the time.
Of course it is not news to anyone that the NNPC under the last administration was called on to bridge some critical funding gaps leading to crudefor-debt deals. The payment commitments reduced the amount of disposable crude available to the NNPC Ltd for meeting other obligations to less than 200,000 barrels daily thereby creating the supply-chain problems Dangote has faced.
This figure is less than a third of the daily need of Dangote Refinery, which is 650,000 bpd (barrels per day), which is why Dangote has to source from independent oil producers over whom the NNPC Ltd has no control. Dangote and the NNPC should be a partner in progress because of the latter’s commitment to local refining, which was prioritised after Kyari’s appointment in 2019.
