Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has declared his willingness to hand up control of his multibillion-dollar oil refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, the state-owned energy firm.
The billionaire made his remarks during the most recent round of a savage argument with Nigerian regulatory bodies, as a fresh disagreement with one of the plant’s major equity partners intensifies.
The $19 billion refinery, more than twice the original estimate, was built to process 650,000 barrels of oil per day. It was inaugurated last year following a ten-year construction delay and is expected to reduce the amount of foreign exchange spent on imports by up to 30% and help wean Africa’s largest oil producer off of its dependency on foreign fuel.
In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, July 21, 2024, Aliko Dangote said, “Let them (NNPCL) 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 OK. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way”.
“We have been facing fuel crisis since the 70s. This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture. So I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery.”
After years of largely stress-free dominance of Nigeria’s cement, salt, and sugar industries, Aliko Dangote took a big risk on oil and gas, which is now proving to be problematic.
The massive plant, which was supposed to begin supplying petrol to the Nigerian market in August, has only been running at a little over half capacity since refining activities began in January. This has been caused in part by challenges obtaining crude from foreign sources.
According to Dangote Refinery, those businesses are either stating the product is unavailable or asking exorbitant fees before agreeing to supply petroleum.
As of May 2024, NNPC, which was in a smooth relationship with Dangote before the present disagreement damaged their relations, had only supplied 6.9 million barrels of oil to the plant since last year, according to supply data tracker S&P Global Platts.
Credit: Premium Times