The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, is expecting fresh reports to confirm the real sulphur content of the diesel produced by the Dangote refinery as the company debunked claims of inferior fuel production.
The NMDPRA spokesman, George Ene-Ita, in an interview on Sunday, said the agency had done its job and would not engage in a media fight with anybody over the claims made by the NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, that Dangote’s diesel has more sulphur content than imported one.
George Ene-Ita stated that the authority has about 15 engineers and scientists embedded in the Dangote refinery, whose fresh report about the refinery’s sulphur content will be out on Monday, 22nd July, 2024.
Allegedly, Ahmed stated that the diesel from the Dangote refinery contains high sulphur content.
In reaction to Dangote’s allegations that the NMDPRA was giving licenses to some traders to import dirty fuel into Nigeria last week, Ahmed argued that it was the Dangote fuel that had a larger content of sulphur.
According to him, the refinery, which has been selling diesel and aviation fuel in Nigeria for months, had yet to be licensed, stating that it was still at the pre-commissioning stage.
“The claim by some media houses that there were steps to scuttle the Dangote refinery is not so. The Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licensed yet; we haven’t licensed them yet. They are still in the pre-commissioning. I think they have about 45 per cent completion,” Ahmed declared.
The NMDPRA boss warned that Nigeria could not rely heavily on the Dangote refinery for its fuel supply.
He said the refinery had requested the regulator to stop giving import licences to other marketers so as to be the only fuel supplier in Nigeria.
“We cannot rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation, because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop importation of all petroleum products, especially AGO and direct all marketers to the refinery, that is not good for the nation in terms of energy security. And that is not good for the market, because of monopoly,” he stressed.
In respect to quality, he said, “So, in terms of quality, currently the AGO quality in terms of sulphur is the lowest as far as the West African requirement of 50 ppm is concerned.
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