Aliko Dangote, the President of the Dangote Group, has alleged that, substandard petroleum products are being imported into the country, and are being sold to unaware Nigerians.
He declared this on Saturday, July 20, at the Dangote Refinery in Lagos State, that was visited by the leadership of the House of Representatives, led by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu.
Dangote further said that, there is a need for investigation to determine if there is sabotage in the oil sector, and to also find out if there are motives to demarket his business.
He also said, the best way to determine the quality of products being imported and sold out to Nigerians is by going to fillings stations to buy and test them out.
According to him: , “The most important thing, Your Excellency, is to note that the imported one they are encouraging, is the spec in the test, but in certain cases, when you check (independently), different results will show.”
Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, contradicted Dangote’s claim that, the Petroleum products from Dangote’s Refinery is substandard. Dangote responded that his own products, are better than the imported ones due to fact that they comply with the highest standards.
Dangote provided evidence to back up his claim, saying diesel were bought from two different petrol stations and also from his refinery, and are being tested refinery’s laboratories using the ASTM D4294 method.
He further said in terms of quality since the time the refinery started, it’s diesel has being one of the best cause it’s sulphur content is between 600 parts per million and 650 ppm.
He stated that the quality of his diesel has improved cause the sulphur content has reduced to 87 ppm, and that by next Monday, it will reduce to 50 ppm.
He said the result does not only proof the quality standard of his refinery products can, but it also shows that substandard petroleum products are being imported into the country. He also said that the sulphur content of the diesel bought from the two filling stations was over 1,800 ppm and 2,600 ppm, respectively.
He said, “Our quality is about 600 to 650 ppm and is one of the best in terms of quality at that time when we started. But as of today, we’re at 87 ppm. I want to plead with the regulator to come at any time, whether Sunday or Monday or take the sample, and I guarantee you before he gets here, our ppm will be even below 10.”
“When we’re coming here, His Excellency, the Speaker said, can we please wait to pick up samples from two filling stations? And also when we get into our plant, they will pick a sample to check the results. The results are actually out, and I’m going to share the same results with you.”
“The sample from TotalEnergies’s diesel showed 1,829ppm sulphur concentration. The sample from Matrix Retail showed 2,653 ppm. Matrix was 61 below 66, and Total is 26 flashpoint. Our flash point showed 96. If you want to do the rest, we can run it at any given time.
“Today I want to announce to Nigerians that our parameters today are extremely, very good parameters. By the end of next week, we should be on 50 ppm and by August, it should be down to 10 ppm.”
He also admonished the House of Representatives to investigate the quality of laboratories being used by the NMDPR to test imported products and compare it with that of his refinery.
He told the lawmakers that his refinery products are open to independent testing so as to attest to the quality of their products and also to expose some of the problems with products being sold in the sector.
He stated that the company has cancelled it plans of entering the steel industry, to avoid being accused of monopolising the market, also, he discharged the accusations that the Dangote Refinery is trying to monopolize the oil sector in the country by saying, the Refinery did not receive any special incentives since it has been built.
He further explained that going into the steel industry will go against the group mandate as it all involve importation of raw materials from outside the country.
He said that: “You know, about doing a new business which we announced, that is, the steel. Actually, our own board has decided that we shouldn’t do the steel because if we do the steel business, we will be called all sorts of names like monopoly. And then also, imports will be encouraged. So we don’t want to go into that.”
He also urged Nigerians to invest in the country so as to boost up the country’s economy.
He said, “Let other Nigerians go and do it. We are not the only Nigerians here. There are some Nigerians with more cash than us. They should bring that money from Dubai and other parts of the world and invest in our own fatherland.”
According to Speaker Abbas, he said there’s a need for investigation and that, “I don’t know how we have this contradiction of two players representing the public and private sector. I think it is something we need to investigate further to find out if there are ulterior motives.”
