ABUJA, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has dismissed suggestions that he should acquire one of the moribund government-owned refineries instead of expanding his refinery’s capacity from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.
Dangote made this known recently while announcing the expansion of his $20bn refinery in Lekki, Lagos State. He told journalists on Sunday that the facility would become the world’s largest within the next three years.
In response to inquiries about why he opted to expand his refinery rather than buy one of the dormant refineries managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Dangote, who was with his friend Femi Otedola, said he preferred to focus on scaling up his operations rather than face accusations of monopoly.
He urged other wealthy Nigerians and groups such as the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) to invest in refinery projects instead.
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“Buying those refineries? Once we touch them, you will hear a lot of noise. There are other people with a lot of money, maybe more cash than we have, who we believe should go and try their own luck, so that there won’t be talk about monopoly.
“There will be talk about other people having opportunities. And I think we have a group like DAPPMAN; they should go and buy some of the refineries. If they are not for sale, then they should actually go and put up their own refinery. So, I think it is far better for other people to go and buy, so we will not be the only ones supporting Mr President’s policy,” he said.
Dangote added that President Bola Tinubu had pledged to support the petroleum sector with crude oil supply.
“At least there is now support from the President. The President is supporting this sector to refine all our crude into petroleum products. And I think other people, too, should take this opportunity.
“For us, we already have our own infrastructure, and we want to double our capacity rather than going somewhere else. We already designed it that way anyway. It is just that we said, ‘Fine, let us start. If the condition is conducive, we will go ahead and double our capacity.’ And that is what we are doing. We are actually more than doubling a bit. We are going to 1.4 million from 650,000.
“So, I think there are thirty people that have this sort of idea of either working in partnership with the NNPC to revive those refineries, which will help. All of us will have to contribute our quota to be able to achieve that $1tn economy. It does not come that easily. So, we are doing our own, and I believe others should do theirs too,” Dangote said.
He also recalled how the late President Umaru Yar’Adua halted his acquisition of the government refineries after he and his team had purchased them in 2007 during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
“We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.
And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’Adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much, if they will work,” he said in May.
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Meanwhile, NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, insisted that the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries “would work again.”
Calls for the privatisation of the government-owned refineries under NNPC management have intensified following the recent shutdown of the 60,000-barrel-per-day old Port Harcourt refinery, just six months after it was declared operational.
Similarly, the Warri refinery was closed one month after its reopening in December by the former Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele kyari.
Industry groups like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria have continued to describe the refineries as an economic burden, urging the Federal Government to sell them off.
Reports indicate that the government has poured billions of dollars into the rehabilitation of the refineries over the years, including $1.4bn for Port Harcourt, $897m for Warri, and $586m for Kaduna. Despite these massive investments, the facilities remain non-functional.
Ojulari noted that NNPC is currently conducting a Technical and Commercial Review of the refineries to evaluate their operational and financial viability.
He said the company aims to reposition the facilities into sustainable, revenue-generating assets aligned with international standards, with plans to bring in Technical Equity Partners experienced in running world-class refineries.