Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote says the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited now owns a 7.2% stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, and not a 20% stake as initially announced before the inauguration of the facility at the Lekki Free Trade Zone.
Dangote, who made this known at a press briefing on Sunday, said NNPC’s stake dropped to 7.2% over the company’s failure to pay the balance of their share, which was due in June. The NNPC had acquired a 20 per cent interest in the $20bn Dangote refinery for $2.76 billion.
“NNPC no longer owns a 20 per cent stake in the Dangote refinery. They were met to pay their balance in June, but have yet to fulfil the obligations. Now, they only own a 7.2% stake in the refinery,” Dangote said.
The NNPC confirmed the development in a statement late Sunday. “NNPC Limited periodically assesses its investment portfolio to ensure alignment with the company’s strategic goals,” said a spokesman for the company.
“The decision to cap its equity participation at the paid-up sum was made and communicated to Dangote Refinery several months ago,” said Olufemi Soneye.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational. The country is heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are a commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol tripled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, Dangote, one of Africa’s leading industrialists, commenced operations at his $20bn facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country while petrol supply is expected to commence in August.
Dangote had expressed frustration about getting Nigerian crude for his facility. A Bloomberg report had it that the Lagos-based refinery bought about 24 million barrels of crude from the United States.
The NNPC had reportedly pledged Nigerian crude in a $3.3 billion oil-for-loan Afreximbank deal, hampering its local crude supply. Nigeria’s crude oil production rose to 1.276 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, way lesser than the 1.7 million bpd benchmark in the 2024 Budget.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, had in May said the decision by the Lagos-based refinery to import US crude could be based on its business model.
But Dangote disclosed on Sunday that his refinery would roll out petrol from August 2024, having resolved its crude oil supply issues with the NNPC and the Federal Government.