Federal Lawmaker Defends Dangote, Accuses NNPCL, NMDPRA Of Attempt To Demarket Refinery

The Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon. (Dr) Philip Agese, has defended the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company against what he called false allegations to demarket the indigenous company for the selfish interest of saboteurs who are bent on keeping Nigeria in the energy crisis quagmire.

Hon. Agbese, who is the member representing Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpokwu Federal Constituency of Benue state in the House of Representatives, therefore, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of being behind the attempts to discredit the private Refinery to advantage of International Oil Companies (IOCs).

The lawmaker, in a statement issued in Abuja, wondered why a regulatory agency would go all out to frustrate the efforts of his country’s entrepreneur to give foreigners the oxygen to continue to run their imperialistic businesses in the country to retard Nigeria’s indigenisation drive in the oil and gas as well as other sectors.

He said preliminary investigations by the parliament has proved, especially the Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, wrong of his concotted allegations that Dangote Refinery products were inferior to the imported quality.

“It is quite unbelievable that the Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), believed to be Africa’s largest refinery, and the World’s 7th largest by capacity and constructed with the intention to alleviate the petroleum products needs and accompanying pains faced by Nigerians will be brought into public opprobrium by no one else than NMDPRA boss Farouk Ahmed.

“By the spirit of the Petroleum Industry Act which created the agency which he superintend over today, he should be the one encouraging local refineries to grow by providing a level playing field them to operate but unfortunately, he is the one stifling indigenisation of the sector and watering ground for economic neocolonialism.

“Nigerians, including critical stakeholders, such as the parliament woke up to gibberish spunned by Ahmed when he declared that: ‘The Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licenced yet. We haven’t licenced them yet. They are still in pre-commissioning stage. I think they’re about 45 per cent completed, in completion rather.

“So we cannot 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 AGO (diesel) and jet fuel, and direct all marketers to the refinery.

“So, in terms of quality, currently…Dangote refinery as well as some major refineries like Waltersmith refinery, produce between 650ppm to 1,200 ppm. So, in terms of quality, their quality is much inferior to the imported quality.”

“That was least expected of him moreso that, the Chairman of the House Committee on Downstream, Ikenga Ugochinyere, and Chairman of the House Committee on Midstream, Okojie Odianosen, oversaw the collection of samples from the Mild Hydro Cracking (MHC) unit of Dangote refinery for testing of all the samples.

“Lab tests revealed that Dangote’s diesel had a sulphur content of 87.6 ppm (parts per million), whereas the other two samples showed sulphur levels exceeding 1800 ppm and 2000 ppm respectively, disproving his malicious claims.

“It is also surprisingly that NNPCL too is in this vicious cycle as it has been been revealed that the Federal government of Nigeria subscribed 20% shares in Dangote Refinery has failed to redeem its obligation and now owns 7.2% through NNPCL. As it that is not enough, the NNPCL is cohorting with cantankerous elements to deny Dangote crude but selling them IOCs,” Hon. Agbese stated.