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Alhaji Aliko Dangote on Sunday indicated his willingness to give up ownership of the multibillion-dollar Dangote refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Many Nigerians have at the weekend expressed concern over the new dimension the brawl between the Dangote Group and regulatory authorities in the oil and gas industry have taken over the operations of the Dangote refinery.
Aliko Dangote, had alleged that local and foreign interests, which he likened to a “mafia”, made repeated attempts to thwart his refinery’s completion.
A few days afterwards, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) alleged that the Dangote Refinery was producing inferior products compared to imported ones.
Farouk Ahmed, who is the Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, alleged that the quality of diesel produced by the refinery was 665 ppm, which he considered inferior, warning therefore that Nigeria may not rely heavily on the Dangote refinery for its fuel supply.
He also said that the refinery has not been licenced to begin operations in the country.
Ahmed made this known while speaking with journalists at the State House, Abuja, on Thursday.
He also denied allegations that the regulatory body was attempting to scuttle the operations of the private refinery due to lack of crude oil supply from international oil companies (IOCs).
In an exclusive interview he granted to PREMIUM TIMES yesterday, however, Africa’s richest man 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”.
The 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery, which cost about $19 billion, was commissioned last year, and it had shown promise of helping to tackle Nigeria’s huge reliance on fuel on importation of refined petroleum products, thereby saving the country about 30 per cent of the total foreign exchange spent on imports.
Speaking further in the exclusive interview, Aliko said: “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.”
