The management of Dangote Refinery has reaffirmed its stance that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is not upholding the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) regarding the domestic supply of crude oil to local refineries.
In a statement by the spokesperson of the refinery, Anthony Chiejina, on Friday, the oil company said NUPRC has only facilitated the sale of one cargo between itself and crude oil producers.
Accordingly, Chiejina said the regulatory body said it cannot implement its own Act because of the “security of a contract,”.
Dangote said all the company is demanding is the supply of crude to local refineries as stipulated in the PIA.
“We are in receipt of NUPRC’s statement that they have facilitated the allocation of 29 million barrels of crude oil to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, we would like to thank them for this allocation but at the same time, we wish to let them know that we are yet to receive these cargoes.
“Aside from the term supply we bilaterally negotiated with NNPCL, so far NUPRC has only facilitated the purchase of one crude cargo from a domestic producer. The rest of the cargoes we have processed were purchased from international traders.
“All we are asking for is for refineries in Nigeria to buy crude directly from the companies that produce it in Nigeria rather than from international middlemen.
“Unfortunately, the NUPRC has effectively admitted in their statement, that they will be unable to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as specified in the PIA citing “sanctity of contracts” as an excuse,” the statement said.
