DANGOTE REFINERY'S MANAGEMENT ACCUSATION OF SABOTAGE AGAINST IOC'S

 

The recent claims by the management of the Multi-billion dollars Dangote refinery and petrochemical company against international oil companies on plans to sabotage is no doubt an interesting twist since Nigerian investor Alhaji Aliko Dangote began the construction of $20B Oil refining plant in Ibeju-Lekki Lagos in 2014 under the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration, it was clear that the largest single train refinery of 650000 barrels per day refining capacity was going to put some vested interests for a fight, in a country where the ABA Power plant that was meant to have taken 5 years for commissioning took two decades until completion, due to the entrenched culture of Vested Interests self-inflicted Vultures ripping the soul of Nigerian economy apart...

Going into memory lane after the discovery of crude oil deposits in commercial quantities in Oloibiri Present day Bayelsa state in 1958, the first Oil refinery in Nigeria was built by Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1965 in Port-Harcourt Rivers State which was taken over by the Nigerian Government later three other refineries were built in Kaduna, Warri, and Port-Harcourt by the NNPC which were running in full capacity until Dirty corruption, sleaze and malfeasance rendered them moribund thus making Nigeria a net importer of refined petroleum products with close to N15trillion spent on importation of petroleum products in the last 25 years of democracy, coupled with Multi-trillion fuel subsidy scandals during the Jonathan Administration, with imports of critical products such as PMS, DIESEL and KEROSENE to meet ever-increasing needs for domestic consumption. The last administration led by former President Muhammadu Buhari announced the loan of $1.2B to fix the Port-Harcourt refinery promising heaven and earth that the decision would revitalize the domestic refining capacity To date nothing has come from it...

In the past State owned NNPC company announced the setting of refineries in Itobe Kogi State,Bayelsa and Lagos States called the KBL Refineries projects under the leadership of then CEO Shehu Ladan of Blessed memory unfortunately refineries were built on the pages of the Newspapers,20 Licenses were issued by the Obasanjo Administration to private investors nothing came out from it,even Oil Giant Oando Group abandoned the construction of 320000 Barrels per day refinery in Lagos due to cost projections and profitability issues, the coming on stream of Dangote group into the petroleum industry is no doubt a remarkable feat for promoter Alhaji Aliko Dangote GCON a man honoured across several African nations for his decision to invest heavily in Industrial projects creating hundreds of thousands of Jobs,the 20B Dollars Dangote refinery and petrochemical plant Ibeju Lekki Lagos comes with a fertilizer plant,12000 megawatts undersea power facility that can create 130000 direct and indirect jobs that will make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products thereby unleashing millions of job opportunities for a country struggling with a huge unemployment crisis.

The management of the Dangote group have accused Oil firms of increasing the price of crude per barrel to frustrate the refinery from operating at optimum capacity thereby resorting to Importation of crude oil form US and European Markets,it is clear these IOC’S are bent on frustrating Nigeria’s quest for development having watched Nigeria lose close to $360B in the last 65 years of petroleum exploration,therefore we cannot allow vested interests abroad in collusion with their local collaborators frustrate the biggest single investment in the Nigerian Petroleum industry in the last 64 years of independence.