NNPC Stake In Dangote Refinery Now 7.2%, Not 20% – Dangote

Dangote has revealed that NNPC stake in Dangote Refinery is now 7.2% and not 20%.

Glamtush reports that the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited now owns a 7.2% stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, and not a 20% stake as initially announced before the inauguration of the facility at the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

Africa’s richest man Dangote, who made this known at a press briefing on Sunday, said NNPC’s stake dropped to 7.2% over the company’s failure to pay the balance of their share, which was due in June. The NNPC had acquired a 20 per cent interest in the $20bn Dangote refinery for $2.76 billion.

He said, “NNPC no longer owns a 20% stake in the Dangote refinery. They were meant to pay their balance in June but have yet to fulfill the obligations. Now, they only own a 7.2% stake in the refinery.”

The NNPC confirmed the development in a statement late Sunday. “NNPC Limited periodically assesses its investment portfolio to ensure alignment with the company’s strategic goals,” said a spokesman for the company.

“The decision to cap its equity participation at the paid-up sum was made and communicated to Dangote Refinery several months ago,” said Olufemi Soneye.

Speaking to journalists at a one-day training programme organised by the Dangote Group on Friday, the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin accused International Oil Companies in Nigeria of plans to frustrate the survival of the new Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.

Edwin also accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority of granting licences indiscriminately to marketers to import dirty refined products into the country.

He noted that though the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission was trying its best to allocate crude oil for the 650,000-capacity refinery, “the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude.”

This, he said, was done by hiking the cost above the market price, thereby forcing the refinery to import crude from countries as far as the United States, with its attendant high costs.

More so, the Federal Government and crude oil producers in Nigeria have shown commitment to working towards a sustainable supply of crude oil to local refineries under a market-determined pricing system.

Both parties said the commitment aimed to ensure that while the operators (crude oil producers) do business optimally, the refineries are not starved of feedstock.

Accordingly, the industry regulator, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has directed oil refiners in the country to provide monthly price quotes on crude supply.

As contained in a Bloomberg report on Friday, the refinery is set to import a cargo of Brazilian crude, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

It said this would add to the large number of overseas barrels of crude feedstock that the Nigerian firm was importing.