Oil Cabal Renew Battle Against ALIKO DANGOTE

• Engage Him In Media WAR!

• Over Crude Oil Supply

• And ALIKO Fights Back

Are you one of those who feel that the battle Alhaji Aliko Dangote is facing with the NNPC Ltd. on one side, and the Oil Cabal on the other side, is over?

No! Far from it. We can tell you authoritatively that, despite Pres. Bola Tinubu’s intervention a few days back asking the NNPC to give Dangote Refinery Crude Oil, that order has not been complied with.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell crude to Dangote Refinery and other upcoming refineries in Naira, a few days back.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in a post via his official X handle then.

Onanuga stated that the move, which is to ensure the stability of the pump price of refined fuel and the Dollar-Naira exchange rate, was adopted by the Federal Executive Council. Dangote Refinery, at the moment, requires 15 cargoes of crude, at a cost of $13.5 billion yearly. NNPC has committed to supply 4. However, the FEC has approved that the 450,000 barrels meant for domestic consumption be offered in Naira to Nigerian refineries, using the Dangote refinery as a pilot. The statement added, “The exchange rate will be fixed for the duration of this transaction.

“Afreximbank and other settlement banks in Nigeria will facilitate the trade between Dangote and NNPC Limited. The game-changing intervention will eliminate the need for international letters of credit, further saving the country of dollar payments.”

What has happened is that many of the members of the Oil Cabal have engaged Alhaji Aliko Dangote in a social media war, as all sorts of stories have been making the rounds on social media containing all sorts of damaging information that has added a new twist to the issue, which has led Alhaji Aliko Dangote to come out to debunk all the allegations.

There was a report a few days ago in what appears a major shift from previous claim by the Dangote Refinery company when the Group Chief Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company, Aliyu Suleiman allegedly, stated that 60 per cent of the crude supplied to the refinery was done by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.

Aliyu allegedly made the submission during an interactive session organised by the Senate Ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged sabotage in the Nigerian petroleum industry.

This supersedes the position of the Group Chief Commercial Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Rabiu A. Umar, who had claimed that the NNPC has been supplying insufficient crude oil for its production demand.

Umar had said that NNPC supplies only 33 per cent of crude to the refinery, disclosing that it had to look elsewhere to source the remaining 67 per cent to meet its production capacity. He added that the refinery, which has the capacity of refining 650,000 per day, could not depend on short supply from Nigeria’s oil company.

But during his presentation, Aliyu Suleiman stated that out of the five million barrels of crude oil they got in recent time, “NNPC gave them 60 per cent, 20 per cent was imported, and 20 per cent was purchased”.

Aliyu expressed gratitude for the strong partnership between the Dangote Refinery and the NNPC Ltd, and for making the huge supply to Dangote.

He described the refinery as a baby that should be supported by all relevant stakeholders “in order to grow and not die”.

A few days ago, Dangote Refinery had to clarify its stand on Crude supply to its refinery.

This was contained in a statement signed by its Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina.

It reads; “Our attention has been drawn to media reports alleging that the Dangote Refinery has backtracked by acknowledging that NNPC supplied about 60% of the 50 million barrels we lifted.”

“To clarify, we have never accused NNPC of not supplying us with crude. Our concern has always been NUPRC’s reluctance to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that we receive our full crude requirement from NNPC and the IOCs.”

“For September, our requirement is 15 cargoes, of which NNPC allocated six. Despite appealing to NUPRC, we’ve been unable to secure the remaining cargoes. When we approached IOCs producing in Nigeria, they redirected us to their international trading arms or responded that their cargoes were committed.”

“Consequently, we often purchase the same Nigerian crude from international traders at an additional $3-$4 premium per barrel which translates to $3-$4 million per cargo.”

“We therefore still insist that we are unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge NUPRC to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA.”