Dangote insists IOCs are still frustrating its crude oil supply demands
- Dangote Refinery
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Management of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), on Wednesday, doubled down on its allegation that International Oil Companies (IOCs) are frustrating its demand for supply of crude oil.
This fresh allegation is coming even as the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote disclosed on Sunday that the refinery was set to roll out its petrol in August 2024, having resolved its crude oil supply issues through the help of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Federal Government.
Dangote, who stated this when he took senior journalists on a tour of the refinery and Dangote Fertilizer plants in Ibeji-Lekki, Lagos on Sunday, while noting that the issue the refinery was having with international oil companies regarding the supply of crude was resolved last week, said, “We plan to list the refinery and petrochemical before the end of the first quarter of next year.”
It will be recalled that the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, on June 23, accused international oil companies in the country of plotting to frustrate the survival of the new Dangote Refinery.
Edwin, who spoke to journalists at a one-day training programme organised by the Dangote Group said the IOCs were deliberately frustrating the refinery’s efforts to buy local crude by jerking up crude oil prices above the market price, thereby forcing it to import crude from countries as far as the United States, with its attendant huge costs.
“It seems that the IOCs’ objective is to ensure that our petroleum refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for a ridiculous and 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.
“It appears that the objective of the IOCs is to ensure that Nigeria remains a country, which exports crude oil and imports refined petroleum products. They are keen on exporting the raw materials to their home countries, creating employment and wealth for their countries, adding to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and dumping the expensive refined products into Nigeria, thus making us dependent on imported products.”
He also lamented the activity of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in granting licences indiscriminately to marketers to “import dirty refined products into the country.”
But even as it doubled down on its allegations on Wednesday, Dangote commended the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for its various interventions in the oil company’s crude supply requests from International Oil Companies (IOCs), and for publishing the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) guidelines to enshrine transparency in the oil industry, even as it warned that local price will continue to increase because trading arms offer cargoes at $2-$4 per barrel, above NUPRC official price
Vice President, Oil & Gas, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr. DVG Edwin, who raised the alarm again on Wednesday, however, said: “If the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO) guidelines are diligently implemented, this will ensure that we deal directly with the companies producing the crude oil in Nigeria as stipulated by the PIA.”
Edwin insisted that IOCs operating in Nigeria have consistently frustrated the company’s requests for locally produced crude as feedstock for its refining process.
He highlighted that when cargoes are offered to the oil company by the trading arms, it is sometimes at $2-$4 (per barrel) premium above the official price set by NUPRC.
“As an example, we paid $96.23 per barrel for a cargo of Bonga crude grade in April (excluding transport). The price consisted of $90.15 dated brent price + $5.08 NNPC premium (NSP) + $1 trader premium. In the same month we were able to buy WTI at a dated brent price of $90.15 + $0.93 trader premium including transport.
“When NNPC subsequently lowered its premium based on market feedback that it was too high, some traders then started asking us for a premium of up to $4m over and above the NSP for a cargo of Bonny Light.
“Data on platforms like Platts and Argus shows that the price offered to us is way higher than the market prices tracked by these platforms. We recently had to escalate this to NUPRC”, Edwin said, and urged the regulatory commission to take a second look at the issue of pricing.
Edwin’s response came against the background of a statement by the Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, who in an interview on ARISE News TV on Wednesday said that “it is ‘erroneous’ for one to say that the International Oil Companies (IOCs) are refusing to make crude oil available to domestic refiners, as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has a stipulation that calls for a willing buyer-willing seller relationship.”
Edwin noted that, “The NUPRC has been very supportive to the Dangote Refinery as they have intervened several times to help us secure crude supply. However, the NUPRC Chief Executive was probably misquoted by some people hence his statement that IOCs did not refuse to sell to us. To set the records straight, we would like to recap the facts below.
“Aside from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), to date we have only purchased crude directly from only one other local producer (Sapetro). All other producers refer us to their international trading arms.
“These international trading arms are non-value adding middlemen who sit abroad and earn margin from crude being produced and consumed in Nigeria. They are not bound by Nigerian laws and do not pay tax in Nigeria on the unjustifiable margin they earn.
“The trading arm of one of the IOCs refused to sell to us directly and asked us to find a middleman who will buy from them and then sell to us at a margin. We dialogued with them for nine months and in the end, we had to escalate to NUPRC who helped resolve the situation,” Edwin stated.
According to him, “When we entered the market to purchase our crude requirement for August, the international trading arms told us that they had entered their Nigerian cargoes into a Pertamina (the Indonesia National Oil Company) tender, and we had to wait for the tender to conclude to see what is still available.
“This is not the first time. In many cases, particular crude grades we wish to buy are sold to Indian or other Asian refiners even before the cargoes are formally allocated in the curtailment meeting chaired by NUPRC.
“However, we would like to urge NUPRC to take a second look at the issue of pricing. NUPRC has severally asserted that transactions should be on willing seller / willing buyer basis. The challenge however is that market liquidity (many sellers / many buyers in the market at the same time) is a precondition for this. Where a refinery needs a particular crude grade loading at a particular time then there is typically only one participant on either side of the market.
“It is to avoid the problem of price gouging in an illiquid market that the domestic gas supply obligation specifies volume obligation per producer and a formula for transparently determining pricing. The fact that the domestic crude supply obligation as defined in the PIA has gaps is no reason for wisdom not to prevail,” Edwin stated.