Nigeria’s Dangote oil refinery which is alleged to be reselling cargoes of U.S. and Nigerian crude, has pushed back against the claims, dismissing it as outright falsehood.
A report at the weekend had alleged that the 650,000 barrels rated refinery which is due to begin production of PMS in weeks, had offered for resale four different grades of crude quoting sources familiar with the matter.
Crude prices added to an earlier decline after the news on Friday with Brent crude falling as much as 2.5% towards $80 a barrel, and had recovered to above $81 by 1700 GMT Friday.
Reuters report said three of the sources had said the reoffer was linked to technical problems at the giant refinery and claimed that cargoes of Nigerian Escravos and Forcados crude were among the grades being offered, as well as U.S. WTI Midland crude, quoting unnamed sources.
However, s statement by Dangote Group dismissed the allegation, insisting that the CDU of the refinery was in perfect condition.
According to Tony Chiejina a Dangote Executive, “our attention has been drawn to a misleading report on our crude distillation unit and also that we are offering crude for re-sale.
“This is outright falsehood as we are not authorised to sell any crude we buy from Nigeria! Also, our CDU is working and in perfect condition.
“We advise that you ignore these false narratives being peddled by those bent on the importation of dirty fuels into the country.”
The refinery started production in January and will be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity. It could upend what has been a highly lucrative Europe-to-Africa fuel trade and transform Nigeria into an exporter of fuels.
Such resales by refineries as alleged by the reuters report, are quite rare but not unknown, traders.
The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery was built at a cost of $20 billion by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote.
Dangote aims to reverse Nigeria’s reliance on imports for fuel which have continued even though the country is Africa’s biggest oil producer.
