The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited has reaffirmed that it is not engaged in any sabotage of the Dangote Refinery, emphasizing its significant billion-naira investment in the plant.
In a recent interview on the Bereke Family Radio Programme, which was published on YouTube on Sunday, Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC, stated that the oil company had invested billions of naira in the refinery.
The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, told the Bereke Family Radio Programme in a recent interview posted on YouTube on Sunday that the oil firm has invested billions of dollars in the refinery.
He underlined that undermining the facility would be unproductive for NNPC since it would go against its own interests.
In addition, he reaffirmed that NNPC owns a 7.2% share in the refinery, highlighting the fact that this investment shows how confident the national oil company is in the 650,000 barrels per day petrochemical plant’s potential for success.
“We want all Nigerians to know that NNPC limited doesn’t have any issue at all with Dangote Refinery. We are part of the owners of Dangote refinery and we will want it to collapse.
“We put billions of naira into Dangote refinery. As of today, we have 7.2% stake in the refinery. So why would we want to sabotage such a company?
“Now, on the issue Mr. Farouq raised, he doesn’t work for NNPC. Mr. Farouq Ahmed is the head of Nigeria’s mainstream and downstream petroleum regulatory authorities. They have power over all the refineries. Anything that has to with distribution of petrol, they are in charge. In fact, they are superior to us in that area. We don’t have anything to do with them,” Soneye said.
Soneye also gave an explanation for NNPC’s decision to cut its ownership of the Dangote refinery to 7.2%.
According to him, NNPC opted to reallocate its investment into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) projects across the nation.
He said that NNPC came to the conclusion that CNG is a more cost-effective energy option for Nigerians.
“The reason we reduce our stakes in Dangote refinery is because we want to invest in CNG. We see that CNG is very cheap and all over the world people are investing in clean, cheaper, energy alternative.
“That’s why you see that NNPC is building different CNG stations across everywhere.
“Because we see that for N10,000, Nigerians can fill their cars and use it for two weeks. We realize that gas is cheaper in Nigeria, why don’t we invest in it?,” Soneye added.
The Dangote Refinery and Nigerian oil sector regulators are entangled in an ongoing conflict concerning the supply of crude oil.
A major policy change was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), allowing crude oil to be sold to the refinery in Naira rather than US dollars.
