Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) no longer owns a 20 per cent stake in the refinery, according to a statement by Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group.
He made this known while briefing journalists in Lagos State on Sunday.
“NNPC no longer owns a 20% stake in the Dangote refinery. They were met to pay their balance in June but have yet to fulfill the obligations. Now, they only own a 7.2% stake in the refinery,” he said.
In August 2021, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, informed lawmakers that the company had acquired a 20 percent stake in the Dangote Refinery.
This development occurred amid challenges the Dangote Refinery faced in securing crude oil supplies due to high prices.
The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery, through the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin had accused international oil companies of hindering its launch by selling crude oil at inflated prices.
Edwin also criticized the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority for indiscriminately granting licenses to marketers, allowing them to import substandard refined products into the country.
He acknowledged that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission was doing its best to allocate crude oil for the 650,000-capacity refinery, but stated that “the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude.”
This, he said, was done by hiking the cost above the market price, thereby forcing the refinery to import crude from countries as far as the United States, with its attendant high costs.
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