President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji
Aliko Dangote, has declared that the battle to safeguard the survival of his
$20 billion oil refinery is far from over, vowing to persevere against powerful
interests bent on frustrating the project.
Speaking at an investor forum in Lagos, as reported by
international news platform Semafor, Africa’s richest man alleged that
entrenched interests who have long profited from Nigeria’s petrol subsidy
regime are actively resisting the full operations of his 650,000
barrels-per-day refinery located in Lekki, Lagos.
“We’re fighting, and the fight is not yet finished,”
Dangote said. “But I have been fighting all my life, and I am 100 per cent sure
I will win at the end of the day.”
He asserted that the same groups funding resistance to
President Bola Tinubu’s petrol subsidy removal are also working against his
refinery, seeing it as a threat to their decades-old grip on the fuel import
business.
Dangote reiterated that the sabotage is not only
local. He accused some International Oil Companies (IOCs) of denying his
refinery access to domestic crude despite official supply obligations. Instead,
the refinery has had to import crude from as far as the United States,
incurring significantly higher costs.
In June 2024, the Group’s Vice President for Oil and
Gas, Devakumar Edwin, accused the IOCs of “deliberate and willful frustration”
by inflating local crude prices to uncompetitive levels. He also accused the
Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) of
undermining the refinery by issuing import licences for substandard, dirty
fuels.
Dangote expressed frustration that some regulatory
authorities were complicit in weakening the refinery’s impact, lamenting that
vested interests were determined to keep Nigeria dependent on imported fuel.
“In a system where people have made good money for 35
years, and suddenly the tap is being turned off, of course, they will fight
back,” he said. “But this refinery is essential—not just for Nigeria, but for
the entire sub-region and sub-Saharan Africa.”
He recalled that a former Saudi Energy Minister,
Khalid Al-Falih, once advised him against building the refinery. “But I told
him I didn’t need the advice,” Dangote said.
Despite the challenges, the industrialist remains
committed to pushing the refinery to full operational capacity. In an earlier
remark, he once said, “The oil and gas mafia is stronger than the drug mafia,”
but added that he would not relent in his mission.
The Dangote Refinery, when fully operational, is
expected to meet Nigeria’s domestic fuel needs and export refined products,
drastically reducing the country’s dependence on imports and reshaping the West
African energy market.
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