Refinery: Dangote Kicks As NNPC Moves To Buy 20 Percent Stake

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Melee Kyari said African billionaire and business magnate, Aliko Dangote, does not want to sell shares in his refinery and petrochemical project under construction in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, Nigeria.

Kyari, however, said it is important that the NNPC, as the national oil company, guarantee energy security for the country by “having a say in the board of the refinery”.

The NNPC GMD spoke on Tuesday when he featured in Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme monitored by The PUNCH.

According to him, the NNPC will take 20 per cent equity in the Dangote Refinery which has the capacity to produce 650,000 bpd per day.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, has for several years been importing the bulk of its refined petroleum products from Europe and other places as a result of the inability of its refineries to refine crude oil abundant in the country.

The country has four national refineries including the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.

Speaking on Tuesday, the NNPC GMD said, “Dangote refinery will come to work, by 2022, it should come into production and what that should do is to deliver over 50 million litres of gasoline, to be specific, into our market.

“We are also working on our refineries to make sure we fix them; we have awarded the Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation and ultimately we are close to that of Warri and Kaduna, so that very soon, in July, all of them will work contemporaneously and at the end of the day, we will deliver all of them.

The net effect is that you are going to have an environment where Nigeria becomes a hub for petroleum supply. It is going to change the dynamics of petroleum supply, even globally, in the sense that the flow is coming from Europe today and it is going to be reversed to some other direction. We will be the supplier for West Africa legitimately and also many other parts of the world.

The meaning of this is that there is an opportunity thrown at us and I am not sure that Mr Dangote wants to sell his equity in the refinery. I can confirm that it was at our instant that we started the engagement; he did not want to sell his shares in this refinery.

“There is no country that would watch a business of this scale, which is bordering on energy security, which also has high implication even on the physical security of our country and you watch it that you don’t have a say.

“I am not sure Mr Dangote is very happy with this. We are taking 20 per cent equity of the Dangote Refinery. There is a valuation process, it is very international and very regulated. No bank will give you money to buy stake,” he added.

Punch