Dangote Refinery Has Not Been Licensed, Says NMDPRA
. Says Diesel Product Inferior To Imported
By Frederick Wright
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, has disclosed that the Dangote refinery has not been licensed.
Ahmed, in an interview with journalists, discarded claims by some media outlets that they were trying to scuttle the Dangote Refinery.
He said “That is not so. Dangote Refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licensed yet. We haven’t license them yet. I think they are about 45% to completion.
“We cannot rely on one refinery to feed the nation. Because Dangote is requesting that we suspend or stop imports, especially of AGO and DPK, and direct all marketers to his refinery.
“That is not good for the nation in terms of energy security, and it is not good for the market because of the monopoly,” he said.
Ahmed said that in terms of quality, Dangote’s current AGO (diesel) suffers from the lowest quality in terms of sulfur content, falling short of West Africa’s requirement of 50 parts per million (PPM).
“Dangote Refinery, as well as some modular refineries like Waltersmith refinery and Aradel refinery are producing between 650 to one 1,200 PPM. Therefore, in terms of quality, their products are inferior to imported ones,” he said.
