This ordinarily should have been a good news but then, it raises some questions and possibilities;
1. Is it possible that dangote is not getting the expected returns from his investment in the refinery sector and wants to sell it out to the government now that it's not yet obvious that the company isn't able to to be sustainable in the long run.
Before one is able to answer this question of yours, which is crucial at this time, you will also need to ask questions such as what were the initial idea or reasons that influenced Dangote to go into the oil and gas sector and forge ahead to build the largest crude oil refinery in Africa. If you remember, he also mentioned that while he was planning to invest heavily in his refinery, he had billionaire friends who cautioned him not to go into the sector by investing in building such refinery. But he didn't burge, rather he went ahead to build the refinery to what it is today. One would wonder why he continued and invested so much into the refinery amidst the advise he got from his friends?
The oil and gas sector in Nigeria is one industry that have been heavily populated by corrupt individuals making sheddy deals and decisions for the country for decades now. The exportation of crude oil and importation of refined oil is one wrong business decision the country have not been able to address for decades now. How can a country be so rich in crude oil products but all it's refineries have been down and out of function when the country is begging to survive on high level of increased fuel pump prices in the country.
What will it take for the government to fix the refineries in Delta, Rivers and Kaduna to be able to refine a good percentage of the crude oil taken out of the country for refining. When you combine those three refineries, it is not up to half of the over 1.2 million barrels of crude oil produced by Nigeria per day. Why can't the country establish various modular refineries that can refine our crude oil for domestic use.
2. Is it that He's just ready to be generous to his nation and reduce his monopolistic influence from the petroleum sector? If this is true, can the NNPC effectively take care of refinery knowing fully well that we have non functional refinaries under the watch of the federal government that is still struggling?
While the Dangote refinery have all it takes to lift Nigerians from the long time Socio-economic suffering that we are facing including increasing fuel pump prices, removal of fuel subsidy, hike in transport fare, the increase in the commodity market, the insecurity and the excessive lost of revenue in the oil and gas sector due to the exportation of the crude oil that can be refined in Nigeria through the Dangote refinery, I don't think it's his generosity that brought about the idea of building the refinery, rather I think he wants to spread his tentacles to the oil sector and he's trying to monopolize the market by having the largest crude oil refinery in Africa with the capacity of refining close to half of what we produce a day.
The reason why I said this is stemmed to these reasons;
1. The Dangote-Bua fued: BUA Group who are another industry leader in the commodity market including Sugar and Cement industries came out on social media to accuse the Dangote Group of its pressure to bring down their investments in those industry to remain at the top. They also accused the Dangote Group of being spoon-fed by the government to get their ways in monopolizing the market. In another claim, the Bua Group accused the Dangote Group of trying to bring them down for almost 30 years since they joined the market and that their own reasons for coming into the trade is to create a competitive market that the people can benefit and enjoy.
2. The Dangote's monopolistic trajectory: the Dangote group have claimed, during a media battled between them and BUA group, that they control 70% of the cement market and won't be letting that go anytime, in another article online by Premium Times mentioned that Dangote went to the cement industry to dominate and monopolize the market thereby giving a fall to other thriving cement companies like Ibeto Cement at a time. We've also seen where Dangote came out recently to scrap his investment plan into the steel industry over the monopoly accusations leveled against him.
3 should the dangote refinery become non functional in time to come, what would be the effect on the availability of fuel and other petroleum product in the country considering the fact that even at this time, we're still struggling with the issue of fuel sufficiency.
Let's talk.
Well, the cabals in the oil and gas industry will have a large share of determining that. But the government have the ultimate responsibility to determine whether Dangote refinery will thrive or not. I know the cabals are scared of the monolopy likely to come to the market and how they may not benefit from their juicy sheddy deals from the local refinery. But that left some asking whether Nigerians prefer to have foreign or local monolopy. The good thing is companies like the BUA Group have also tried to establish a 200,000bpd capacity of oil refinery in Akwa Ibom too. Another good news is that the president have also ordered NNPCL to sell crude to Dangote Refinery in Naira.
This means that Dangote Refinery won't have to go to Brazil to get its product to run its operations which may not be sustainable. If that happens, the refinery will be able to supply Nigerians will refined oil for our consumption and there would be little or no need to import refined oil for consumption. Also, when the BUA Refinery also starts operating, Nigeria will have enough fuel and the competition in the market will increase. By the time other modular refineries also come into the market, our naira will gain a very strong value in the international trade market and Nigerians will see a great decrease in hike of fuel and commodities.
