The 10th House of Representatives leadership, led by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, visited the Dangote Petroleum refinery in Lagos State on Saturday, amidst controversy over the refinery’s quality and licensing status.
The lawmakers were received by Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, and top executives of the company. They are expected to tour the 650,000 barrels per day refinery and discuss the plan to start supplying petrol next month.
However, the visit comes days after the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority, Farouk Ahmed, raised concerns about the refinery’s quality and licensing status.
Ahmed alleged that the diesel produced by the refinery contains a high sulphur content of about 1,000 parts per million, which is inferior to imported quality.
“We cannot rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation,” Ahmed said. “Dangote is requesting that we suspend or stop importation of all petroleum products, especially AGO, and direct all marketers to the refinery. That is not good for the nation in terms of energy security, and that is not good for the market because of monopoly.”
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The NMDPRA boss also stated that the refinery has not been licensed yet and is still at the pre-commissioning stage. “The claim by some media houses that there were steps to scuttle the Dangote refinery is not so.
The Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licensed yet; we haven’t licensed them yet. They are still in the pre-commissioning. I think they have about 45 per cent completion,” he said.
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