THE CABLE
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says the Dangote refinery is still at the pre-commissioning stage and has not been licensed.
Speaking to state house correspondents on Thursday, Farouk Ahmed, the chief executive officer (CEO) of NMDPRA, said there are numerous concerns regarding petroleum products’ supply nationwide.
“Well, just like you rightly asked, there are lots of concerns about the supply of petroleum products nationwide and the claims by some media houses that we were trying to scuttle Dangote refinery; that is not so,” he said.
“Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licensed yet. We have not licensed them yet.
“I think they are at about 45 percent completion. So we can not rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop all importation of petroleum products, especially automotive gas oil (AGO) or jet kero and direct all marketers to the refinery.”
This, Ahmed said, is not good for the nation in terms of energy security and also not good for markets because of monopoly.
“So, in terms of quality, currently, the AGO quality in terms of sulphur is the lowest as far as West Africa’s requirement of 50 ppm,” he said.
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