IOCs biggest obstacle to crude supply to local refineries – Dangote

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, on Tuesday disclosed that International Oil Companies (IOCs) remain the biggest challenge to the supply of crude oil to the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery.
Dangote, who spoke in Abuja at the West African Refined Products Pricing and Markets Development conference organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, said the refinery has had to rely on the importation of about 9-10 million barrels of crude oil monthly from America and Europe to remain operational.

“Rather than buying crude oil directly from the Nigerian producers at competitive terms, we found ourselves having to negotiate with international trading companies who were buying Nigerian crude and reselling it to us with hefty premiums. Of course, as we speak today, we buy about 9 to 10 million barrels of crude monthly from the United States and other countries.

“IOCs have been the most difficult part of our journey. Even after scaling the crude, transporting it became another bottleneck. And lifting schedules were constantly shifted by upstream operators, and we were hit with excessive port and regulatory charges”.

Despite the challenges, he said the company has been able to export one million tonnes of petrol in the past 50 days.