The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) provided inaccurate and misleading information regarding the details of its $1 billion investment in the refinery’s operations, stressing that the facts were misrepresented in a manner that misguides stakeholders and the public about the nature and extent of the investment.
The PUNCH states that the company clarified that the $1 billion crude-backed loan is only five per cent of the total investment that went into building the 650,000 barrels per day refinery.
On Monday, the NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Mr Olufemi Soneye, at a stakeholders engagement meeting, revealed that the national oil firm secured a $1 billion loan backed by crude oil to support the coming on stream of the 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery.
He said the gesture represented the firm’s commitment to foster public-private partnerships to foster economic growth.
But responding in a statement after receiving numerous inquiries from concerned stakeholders, the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, on Wednesday, described NNPCL’s claim as “misinformation.”
According to him, it is inaccurate to say NNPCL facilitated $1 billion for Dangote Refinery amid liquidity challenges.
The statement titled, “Addressing NNPCL’s Misinformation”, read, “We have received numerous inquiries from the media and other concerned stakeholders seeking clarification on a recent report attributed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited that their decision to secure a $1bn loan backed by its crude was instrumental in supporting the Dangote refinery during liquidity challenges.
“We would like to clarify that this is a misrepresentation of the situation as $1bn is just about 5 per cent of the investment that went into building the Dangote Refinery.”
Chijiena also explained that NNPCL had proposed a 20 per cent stake investment valued at $2.76 billion in the Dangote Refinery in 2021, but that didn’t materialise due to the inability of the NNPCL to supply the agreed 300,000 barrels a day of crude.
