Nigerian based refineries have set an 18-month period within which they will end importation of refined petroleum products into the country, only if the Federal Government would key into their plans.

The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN), noted that there were other refineries at different stages of completion to join the 650,000-capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical.

The CORAN’s position, The PUNCH reports, was made public by its Publicity Secretary, Eche Idoko, that the Dangote Refinery and others in the country can satisfy the fuel needs of the nation.

This interesting perspective hit the public while the news waves were being ruled by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, shared the perspective that Nigeria would not stop fuel importation, so as to checkmate the Dangote Refinery’s monopoly to ensure Nigeria’s energy security.

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The CORAN’ Publicity Secretary argued that there was no way the government would tackle rising inflation if it did not address the high cost of fuel, especially by working with the local refiners.

In his words, “You can’t tackle inflation if you don’t address the pump price of petroleum products. You cannot say you have a plan to step down inflation and you are not involving the key sectors like the refineries; you have to involve us, let’s work together.

“And CORAN is saying that, in 18 months, if the Nigerian government will work with our programmes and plans, in 18 months, we can stop the importation of petroleum products completely.

“There are refineries in different stages of completion. In 18 months, we can produce what Nigeria will consume.”

According to Idoko, Nigeria has enough crude oil to feed Dangote and other refineries.

He pointed out that crude theft has been the major challenge to the upstream oil sector.

“We have the crude oil to feed these refineries and more fields are being licensed by the day. So, there will be crude to feed the refineries. Our production figure is dropping because of the crude that is being stolen daily.

“When we have local refineries, crude theft will be reduced. People steal crude through the pipelines and most of the refineries are located close to some of these fields. What this does is that the crude oil producers will no longer need to pump their crude through the pipelines to the terminal for export.

“The local refineries will just truck from the fields or get a short pipeline or barge from their fields to these places. We are losing heavily because unscrupulous elements are stealing crude from the long pipelines,” Idoko stated.

In addition, he pointed out that the international oil companies (IOCs) were supposed to sell crude oil to local refineries at a price lower than the international price.

Idoko urged the Federal Government to ensure that crude oil is sold in naira and not dollars, and maintained that this would reduce the cost of fuel production and the pressure on the local currency.

In his view, ending the importation of fuel would strengthen the naira against the dollar, and wants to see the IOCs start selling fuel directly to local refiners instead of referring them to their trading agents in Europe.

Recall that Ahmed had cautioned that Nigeria could not rely heavily on the Dangote refinery for its fuel supply.

According to him, the refinery had requested the regulator to stop giving import licenses to other marketers 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,” Ahmed stressed.

However, the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, denied the allegation, wondering how he could be a monopoly when the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) was renovating government-owned refineries with $4bn.

Biztellers reports that several prominent figures and associations including the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina; billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola; federal lawmakers; former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; former Anambra State governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Others speaking up for Dangote include the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA); the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), have all voiced their support for the Dangote Refinery, and the Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN).

On his part, the President of Dangote Group, Alh Aliko Dangote had decried the alleged refusal of the IOCs to supply crude to his refinery, in addition to regulatory highhandedness.

According to Dangote, his refinery would begin the supply of petrol between August 10 and 12.

It was gathered that the refinery might resort to exporting its Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol unless the regulators and operators of the Nigerian market show required cooperation.