Founder and president/chief executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, Tuesday, said international traders are deliberately frustrating the establishment of new refineries and the efficient operation of existing ones in Africa, to protect their own dubious interests.
Dangote stated this while speaking at the West African refined fuel conference in Abuja, Tuesday, organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and S&P Global Commodity Insights.
“The problem is international traders are deliberately frustrating the establishment of new refineries and the efficient operation of existing ones in Africa, to protect their own dubious interests,” Dangote said.
He added that international traders maintain the offshore Lomé floating market, where over one million tonnes of petroleum products are stored in vessels offshore and sold to African countries at inflated prices.
“When you build a refinery and disrupt that system, you are not just innovating, you are threatening powerful interests that will seriously fight back. Without political support, I don’t think any new large refinery will be built any time soon,” Dangote said.
Stating that this phenomenon is unique to Africa, Dangote argued that building a refinery threatens powerful vested interests entrenched within the petroleum value chain across many African nations.
He added that petroleum products were sold at inflated prices due to the lack of local refining capacity, but prices plummeted once the Dangote refinery became operational.
He said the offshore Lomé floating market exists solely to prevent any refinery from operating in sub-Saharan Africa.
“But make no mistake, those who profit from this system will do everything they can to prevent other refineries from emerging. The whole essence of Lomé is to ensure that no refinery operates in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, I don’t see any new major refining project succeeding with the offshore Lomé market in existence,” he said.
He also cautioned that another tactic used to undermine domestic refiners is the increasing dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products in Africa, some blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America.
(Premium Times)