Aliko Dangote revealed that his oil refinery has a stockpile of 500 million litres of petrol, countering claims by marketers that they needed to supplement Dangote’s supplies with imports to meet fuel shortages.
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, had summoned oil regulators, the head of the state-owned NNPC, the finance minister, and Aliko Dangote to a meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
The purpose was to review a policy requiring NNPC to sell crude oil to the Dangote refinery in local naira currency in an effort to ease foreign exchange pressure and help the mega refinery secure enough crude to meet its 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity.
Following the meeting, Dangote clarified that his business is not involved in retailing petrol and he should not be blamed for fuel shortages in Africa’s top oil producing country.
He also said that keeping fuel in storage tanks is costing him money.
“I expect the NNPC and marketers to stop importing. They should come and collect; we have everything they need,” said Dangote.
Two weeks ago, local fuel traders began increasing imports, claiming that the Dangote refinery was unable to meet domestic demand, exacerbating fuel shortages.
The Dangote Oil Refinery in Lagos began processing petrol in September, initially setting out to supply 25 million litres per day. The goal is to gradually increase production to 35 million litres daily, which Dangote believes will be sufficient to meet local demand.
Nigeria aims to end the importation of petroleum products once the Dangote Refinery reaches full operational capacity.