By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives is determined to investigate the alleged conspiracy by International Oil Companies (IOCs) to frustrate the operations and survival of Dangote Refinery and actual percentage holding of the federal government in the refinery.
The House also directed the Minister of Petroleum Resources, and all relevant MDAs to immediately take urgent steps and intervene in the matter of crude oil supply to Dangote Refinery.
The House also resolved to investigate the inability of NNPC Ltd to subscribe for the 20 percent shares in Dangote refinery and lack of supply of crude oil to Dangote Refinery.
It further advocated for the Federal Government, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission ( NUPRC), Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Agency (NMDRA), key stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians to support Dangote Refinery to succeed.
These resolutions was sequel to the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by the Minority Leader, Rep. Kingsley Chinda at plenary on Thursday.
Debating the motion, Rep. Chinda said Nigeria is a major oil producing and exporting country for several years have continued to import refined petroleum products from other countries, to the detriment of the economic well-being of the country.
According to him, Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) is said to be Africa’s largest refinery, and the World’s 7th largest by capacity, and its construction was meant to alleviate the petroleum products needs and accompanying pains faced by Nigerians.
The Minority Leader also stated that recently, the Management of Dangote Refinery had accused IOCs operating in the country of conspiracy, in an attempt to frustrate the smooth operations of the refinery.
Chinda said the alleged conspiracy against Dangote refinery relates to efforts by the IOCs to deliberately frustrate the refinery’s to buy local crude oil by manipulating and jerking up the premium price above the market price, thus forcing the refinery to reduce output, as well as import oil at exorbitant cost from other countries.
The Minority Leader said according to the management of Dangote Refinery, while the NUPRC was trying its best to allocate crude to Dangote Refinery, the IOCs were deliberately frustrating the refinery’s effort to buy the local crude.
He quoted the management of Dangote Refinery of alleging that NMDPRA was still granting import licenses, indiscriminately, to marketers to import sub-standard refined petroleum products into the country.
He therefore expressed concern that whereas the IOCs are keen on exporting raw materials to their home countries and creating wealth and employment for their countries, thereby adding to their GDP, Nigeria continued to be a dumping ground for the refined products, making citizens dependent on imported petroleum products.
“The IOCs strategy/plan which is capable of making Nigeria face higher rate of unemployment and poverty. There is an urgent need for the Federal government, relevant MDAs, including the NUPRC and the MDPRA, key stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians to support Dangote Refinery to succeed.
“Further worried that whilst the Federal government of Nigeria subscribed 20% shares in Dangote Refinery, the Chairman (Aliko Dangote) clamed that Nigeria was unable to redeem its obligation and now owns 7.2% through NNPC LTD.
“There is an urgent need to look into these allegations by Dangote Refinery and end/break all forms of dominance and monopoly of the petroleum sector by the IOCs and confirm the quantum of Federal government interest in the refinery”, he said.
The opposition leader insisted that unless urgent steps are taken by the Federal government to call the IOCs to order, Dangote Refinery and its operations would be prematurely forced out of business and that would not be good for the people, adding that NNPC.