We’ve not received 29m barrels of crude allocated by NUPRC, says Dangote refinery

Dangote Petroleum Refinery says it has not received 29 million barrels of crude allocated to it by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Anthony Chiejina, group chief, branding and communications officer of Dangote Group, spoke in a statement on Friday.

On Thursday, Dangote refinery said NUPRC has been reluctant to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that it receives its full crude requirement from Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and international oil companies (IOCs).

The NUPRC had denied insinuations by the management of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery that it had not properly enforced the domestic crude supply obligation (DCSO).

NUPRC said nine refineries have benefitted from its supply of 32 million barrels of crude — with Dangote alone getting 29 million barrels out of the total supply between January and June 2024.

However, the Dangote refinery said it has not received the crude supply.

“We are in receipt of NUPRC’s statement that they have facilitated the allocation of 29 million barrels of crude oil to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals,” the company said.

“We would like to thank them for this allocation but at the same time let them know that we are yet to receive these cargoes.

“Aside from the term supply we bilaterally negotiated with NNPC, so far NUPRC has only facilitated the purchase of one crude cargo from a domestic producer. The rest of the cargoes we have processed were purchased from international traders.”

He said refineries in Nigeria should buy crude directly from the companies that produce it in Nigeria — rather than from international middlemen, as specified in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Chiejina said the NUPRC has effectively admitted in their statement that they will be “unable to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation” as specified in the PIA, citing “sanctity of contracts” as an excuse.