The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, says the Federal Government is committed to supporting the $20bn Dangote Refinery near Lagos.
He stated this before a Senator Opeyemi Bamidele-led Ad-hoc Committee over alleged economic sabotage in the petroleum industry in Abuja on Wednesday.
“We are also committed to supporting the Dangote Refinery. We are committed to supporting the modular refineries and we have been resolving whatever issue that has been brought to our attention from time to time,” Lokpobiri said.
“As a government, we are committed to protecting our local industries. There is no two ways. We are committed to protecting all stakeholders in the oil sector; not just one company, not just one regulator, but every stakeholder deserves protection, which is the government’s responsibility.
“We are committed to providing the same standard of protection for everybody. And that is what we have been doing,” the minister added.
He also expressed the government’s commitment to completing the rehabilitation of the three state-owned refineries to “reduce the level of import that we need to be able to serve the needs of Nigerians.”
Late July, the Federal Executive Council directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States greenback.
The measure was aimed at reducing the strain on the country’s foreign spendings and stabilise the pump price of petrol, diesel and other products in Nigeria as well as boost local production of refined petroleum products in Nigeria.
Foremost industrialist and owner of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, had accused the authorities and International Oil Companies of frustrating crude supply to his $20bn facility sited at the Lekki Free Trade Zone near Lagos.
Regulatory authorities would later questioned the quality of petroleum products produced at the Dangote Refinery but the billionaire businessman insisted that the quality of products at his refinery surpassed the ones imported by marketers.
Dangote commenced operations at his behemoth facility located in Lagos last December with 350,000 barrels a day.
The refinery hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country while petrol supply is expected to commence in August amid regulatory resistance.
