By Ali Elias
Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has made a startling accusation against International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria, alleging that they are intentionally sabotaging the operations of the Dangote Oil Refinery. This claim was made by Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at DIL, during a training program for energy journalists.
According to Edwin, the IOCs are hindering the refinery’s progress by artificially inflating the prices of locally sourced crude oil. This accusation suggests that the IOCs are engaged in anti-competitive practices, potentially undermining the success of the Dangote Oil Refinery and Nigeria’s energy sector as a whole. He acknowledged the efforts of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to ensure that the domestic oil supply obligation is met as prescribed by Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) but such efforts are being thwarted by the IOCs.
Devakumar said, “While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude. They are either 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.”
“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),” Edwin explained. “It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails.”
Is it arguable that the IOCs are doing this to cripple the local refinery to benefit their collaborators or the ones in their home countries who benefit from importing refined products to Nigeria? one journalist at the training remarked.