Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, has stated that inferior petroleum products are being brought into Nigeria and offered for sale to gullible Nigerians.
During the House of Representatives’ Saturday visit to the Dangote Refinery in Lagos State, accompanied by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu, Dangote made the assertion.
The business mogul stated that an inquiry was necessary to ascertain whether there are any saboteurs operating in the oil industry or whether there are any hidden agendas to demarket his company.
The richest man in Africa added that visiting fueling stations, purchasing, and testing goods is the greatest method to find out what kind of goods are being imported and sold to Nigerians.
He said, “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.”
Dangote refuted the claim made by Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, that the petroleum products produced at his refinery are inferior and do not meet the highest standards. He claimed that his products are superior to those that are imported.
Dangote, who supported his assertion with proof, said that diesel from his refinery and that purchased from two filling stations had been examined in the company’s laboratory using the ASTM D4294 procedure.
According to the president of the Dangote Group, the diesel had a sulphur content of between 600 and 650 parts per million when the refinery first opened, making it among the best in terms of quality.
Dangote said the quality of his diesel has improved and the sulphur content has dropped to 87 parts per million, but by next Monday, it will drop to 50 parts per million.
He went on to say that the outcome not only validates the existence of goods produced by his refinery but also demonstrates the importation of inferior petroleum products.
Dangote saw that the diesel purchased from the two filling stations had a sulphur concentration of more than 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.”
In addition, he requested that the House of Representatives look into the caliber of the laboratory the NMDPR uses to evaluate imports and contrast it with the one at his refinery.
Dangote told the legislators that he was also willing to allow independent testing of the goods produced at his refinery, since that would only serve to confirm their quality and highlight the issues with some of the goods that other industry participants were selling.
The billionaire also rejected accusations of monopoly, stating that the Dangote Group was not given any preferential treatment during the construction of the refinery.
In an effort to avoid being accused of trying to control the market, he also declared that the corporation would give up on its intentions to join Nigeria’s steel sector.
Dangote clarified that entering the steel sector would entail promoting the importation of raw materials from other countries, which runs counter to the company’s primary objective.
