Pumping Up the Truth at Dangote Refinery

The Refinery’s proclivity for manipulation and consistent misinformation on the actions and activities of other stakeholders in the petroleum industry could have severe consequences on the country and its citizens, writes Irving Zulu

At long last, Dangote Refinery’s petrol made its much awaited public premiere in Nigeria. But it was not without the contrived opaque drama, din and discordance that have come to dog every step of the $20billion behemoth. Or how else can anyone describe the high theatrics that followed a simple announcement of the price of the PMS by the NNPCL, the sole off-taker of the product. Within hours of the announcement, Dangote Refinery issued a screaming media statement denouncing and vilifying the NNPCL Press Release. You couldn’t help but wonder if an organization like NNPCL could not understand how much it paid for a product.

Such endless alarm, cacophony and manipulative tactics have become synonymous with the quest of Dangote Refinery’s management to sell petroleum products to the Nigerian public. Take for instance, the X Space hosted last week by Nairametrics. At this event, the Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, openly expressed frustration over what he claimed to be a boycott of the Dangote Refinery’s products by the local fuel marketers. He stated that despite the efforts of the Refinery to supply affordable petroleum products to the public, the Nigerian fuel marketers have continued to disparage Dangote Refinery and refuse to buy their products, preferring instead to import refined products from abroad.

In his words, “Despite the refinery’s large production capacity, local marketers are only purchasing about 3% of the output”. The remaining 97% of the refinery’s production, including diesel, and jet fuel, according to him is exported due to a boycott by local marketers despite their lower prices. Edwin singled out the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, as the scapegoat of their clear tantrum.

However, reports from analysts, stakeholders and the local fuel marketers have put a palpable lie to Edwin’s claim. One of the foremost and indeed most credible associations of the local fuel marketers, DAPPMAN, came out to denounce the Dangote Refinery’s claim, with data to buttress their assertion. In a statement on Saturday, September 14, the Executive Secretary of DAPPMAN, Olufemi Adewole, stated unequivocally that “Petroleum marketers have lifted 518,500 metric tonnes of aviation fuel, and automotive gas (AGO) popularly known as diesel from the Dangote Refinery in five months. According to him, “Petroleum Marketers have lifted 518,500 metric tonnes of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Jet A1 from Dangote Refinery, (DR) representing 60 percent (60%) of national Truck-out in five months”. This assertion by DAPPMAN is in sharp contrast with Devakumar Edwin’s unsubstantiated claim that Marketers buy only 3% of their products.

DAPPMAN’s position was indeed corroborated by documents sourced from Nigeria Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which showed that over 40 independent marketers patronize the refinery. These include Asharami, MRS Oil and Gas, AA Rano, Rainoil, Prudent, NIPCO, Aym Shafa, Danmarna, TMDK, SAHARA, and SOBAZ, among others.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL also doubted the claim of the Vice President of DIL, Devakumar Edwin. The NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, stated, “I don’t believe local marketers will boycott PMS with lower prices, that seems unlikely”.

Opinion leaders and stakeholders in the oil industry now view Dangote Refineries as employing manipulative tactics, as well as emotional appeals and sensationalist rhetoric to sway public opinion. They see it as an attempt to manipulate public sentiment and put pressure on government to concede to their caprices, unethical and dangerous strategy.

As Tosin Adeoti, a Financial Analyst put it in his Facebook treatise on Friday, September 13, “Aliko Dangote’s strategy has been to cry to Nigerians about some cabal sabotaging his refinery. So that bans could be enacted just like with his other products.” Adeoti added that the management of Dangote Refinery should tell Nigerians the price of his petrol so that marketers could compare with imported fuel which stands at a landing cost of N1,117. He stated emphatically that “Marketers wouldn’t refuse to buy from Dangote Refinery when it is selling a cheaper product”, adding, “It doesn’t make sense”.

Some marketers have also stressed the danger of blackmail, manipulation of data and outright misinformation of the public and lack of transparency especially by behemoths like the Dangote Refinery. Such organisations, they say, tend to foster a culture of fear and intimidation with far-reaching consequences. They point at the statement of the President of the Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, who far away in The Bahamas told the world how some mafia tried to sabotage his refinery without any shred of evidence to lend credibility to his claim. His Vice President, Devakumar Edwin also woke up one morning and, in an unashamed and unsubtle way, accused the Nigeria Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, of issuing import licences indiscriminately to marketers to import dirty fuel. Said a marketer who demanded to remain anonymous. “Till today, Edwin could not provide any verifiable evidence as a testament to his allegation.”

But DAPPMAN could not wear this toga of anonymity. In a pungent reaction to the refinery’s allegation, its Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, in a terse press release said “DAPPMAN wishes to state emphatically that no member of the association and indeed, no private fuel depot has imported into the country any fuel with specification that is outside of the regulation other than what is currently approved by the NMDPRA and would wish to state that the information from the Dangote Refinery Management is laced with inaccuracies.”

An independent marketer in his early 60s who gave his name as Obafemi, also pointed to how the Dangote Refinery Management accused the International Oil Companies, IOCs, of trying to frustrate the refinery by selling crude to them at higher prices.” They forgot that the IOCs have their own customers that they are contractually committed to and, more importantly, that those IOCs, by law, are not obligated to sell to them”.

Still sounding irritated, Obafemi spoke about Aliyu Suleiman, the Chief Strategy Officer of the refinery and his embarrassing confession during an interactive session with the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Sabotage in the Petroleum Industry. “Before this confession, the Group Chief Commercial Officer, Rabiu Umar, had claimed that the NNPCL had been supplying insufficient crude oil, only 33%, for the refinery’s production demand”. According to him, Umar made this accusation while speaking to newsmen in Kano informing them that the refinery had to seek additional 67% of the crude it needed from elsewhere “. Nigerians condemned the NNPCL claiming it was deliberately trying to sabotage Dangote refinery.

But alas, standing before the Senate Ad-hoc committee, Aliyu Suleiman, the Chief Strategy Officer, having been grilled by the Senate Committee members, confessed that NNPCL had actually been supplying 60% of the crude required by the refinery contrary to the 33% that Rabiu Umar told Nigerians. “This is blackmail, pure and simple. It is mischievous, misleading and diabolical,” Obafemi lamented.
This growing tendency of an organization to employ blackmail as a means to win public sympathy and influence government decisions, marketers say, is why the issue of price for Dangote Refinery’s products had been shrouded in mystery and remained blurred and cloudy.

The marketers deplored the fact that, as at Saturday, September 14, a day to Dangote Refinery’s commencement of the first petrol distribution, they were still in the dark with regards to the price of the product. In separate interviews with the media, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry and the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi demanded transparency over the price of petrol from the refinery. Said Gills-Harry, “We have heard only rumours about the price. We cannot be dealing with business clandestinely”.

This covert approach and closet politics of price for petrol blew open on the D-Day, the much awaited climactic Sunday, September 15, 2024. NNPCL had parked 300 of its trucks at the refinery, poised to lift the Dangote premium motor premium motor spirit, PMS. Then like a special gift to Nigerians, NNPC unleashed the much awaited press release stating the price of the Dangote fuel. As an academic, Dr Uche Okwudili summarized, “It turned out an anti-climax.” This was because, barely a few hours later, “Dangote’s people rejected the press release and its content totally, describing it as misleading and mischievous, aimed at undermining their achievement. They even said they are not selling in naira just yet as their business remains dollar denominated”, he stated. Then he raises a poignant question, “Now that NNPC has come out with a clear estimated pump price in dollar and naira, I hope Nigerians will see the end of all these politics, manipulations and endless back and forth between Dangote Refinery and NNPC, between the refinery and the government, between the refinery and the marketers, between the refinery and 10Cs, in short, between the refinery and everybody”, he concluded amusingly.

Finally, it must be said that the controversy, high-wire pressure, manipulative tactics and the vitriolic falsehoods that have defined the Dangote Refinery products off-take should catalyze a national conversation on corporate governance, transparency and accountability. A situation in which organizations like the fuel narketers’ associations, and in particular, DAPPMAN is subjected to outrageous public scrutiny and existential angst because of sheer falsehood, unbridled coercion and pressure tactics like Dangote Refinery”s allegaton of DAPPMAN boycotting its Products, must not be treated with mute indifference. It has to be redressed because the oil marketers, with DAPPMAN as their spearhead, have affirmed and reaffirmed their readiness to patronise Dangote Refinery products, including PMS. All they ask for is transparency and competitive price.
The government, refinery owners, marketers and business leaders must therefore join forces to create a more transparent and sustainable energy sector that prioritizes public interests and indeed survival while seeking profit even in a fully deregulated oil industry.

*Zulu, an Oil Industry analyst, wrote in from Abuja