The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Thursday said the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery is still at the pre-commissioning stage and has not yet been licensed.
The NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, disclosed this while speaking to the state house correspondents on Thursday.
Mr Ahmed said the allegations raised by the refinery that its operations are being scuttled owing to a lack of supply of crude oil by International Oil Companies (IOCs) are untrue.
“Well, just like you rightly asked, there are lots of concerns about the supply of petroleum products nationwide and the claims by some media houses that we were trying to scuttle the Dangote refinery; that is not so.
“Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licenced yet. We have not licensed them yet. I think they are at about 45 per cent completion. So we can not rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop all importation of petroleum products, especially automotive gas oil (AGO) or jet kero and direct all marketers to the refinery,” Mr Ahmed said.
He explained that the expectation is not good for the nation in terms of energy security and also not good for markets because of monopoly.
“So, in terms of quality, currently, the AGO quality in terms of sulphur is the lowest as far as West Africa’s requirement of 50 parts per million (ppm). Dangote refinery, as well as some major refineries like Waltersmith refinery, produce between 650 ppm to 1,200 ppm. So, in terms of quality, their quality is much more inferior to the imported quality,” he said.
