Dangote Accuses International Oil Companies In Nigeria Of Manipulating Crude Oil Prices

Devakumar Edwin, the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), has alleged that International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria are making deliberate efforts to sabotage the progress of the Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals project.

Edwin shared this information with a gathering of Energy Editors during a one-day workshop arranged by the Dangote Group.

Edwin noted that the IOPdeliberately hindering the refinery’s attempts to buy local crude by charging inflated premium prices higher than the market rates. This situation is forcing the refinery to import crude from faraway countries such as the United States, resulting in much higher expenses.

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He 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.

“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). It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails.

“It Is either they are deliberately 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

“This has forced us to reduce our output as well as import crude from countries as far as the US, increasing our cost of production.”