The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has acknowledged that the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted offered inaccurate and deceptive info relating to its $1bn funding within the refinery’s operations.
The $20bn Lekki-based agency harassed that the information had been misrepresented in a fashion that misguided stakeholders and the general public concerning the nature and extent of the funding.
The corporate clarified that the $1bn crude-backed mortgage was solely 5 per cent of the entire funding in constructing the 650,000 barrels per day refinery.
On Monday, the Chief Company Communications Officer of NNPCL, Mr Olufemi Soneye, stated the nationwide oil agency secured a $1bn mortgage backed by crude oil to assist the approaching on stream of the 650,000 barrels per day capability refinery.
He stated the gesture represented the agency dedication to foster public-private partnership to foster financial development.
However responding in a press release after receiving quite a few inquiries from involved stakeholders, the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, on Wednesday, described NNPCL’s declare as “misinformation.”
In accordance with him, it’s inaccurate to say NNPCL facilitated $1bn for Dangote Refinery amid liquidity challenges.
The assertion titled, “Addressing NNPCL’S Misinformation”, learn, “We’ve obtained quite a few inquiries from the media and different involved stakeholders searching for clarification on a current report attributed to the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted that their determination to safe a $1bn mortgage backed by its crude was instrumental in supporting the Dangote refinery throughout liquidity challenges.
“We want to make clear that it is a misrepresentation of the state of affairs as $1bn is nearly 5 per cent of the funding that went into constructing the Dangote Refinery.”
Chijiena additionally defined that NNPCL had proposed a 20 per cent stake funding valued at $2.76bn within the Dangote Refinery in 2021, however that didn’t materialise as a result of incapacity of the NNPCL to produce the agreed 300 thousand barrels a day of crude.
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He additionally famous that NNPCL was capable of make investments $1bn, which quantities to a 7.24 per cent fairness worth.
The assertion continued, “Our determination to enter right into a partnership with NNPCL was based mostly on recognition of their strategic place within the business as the most important offtake of Nigerian crude and, on the time, the only provider of gasoline into Nigeria.
“We agreed on the sale of a 20 per cent stake at a worth of $2.76bn. Of this, we agreed that they are going to solely pay $1bn whereas the steadiness shall be recovered over a interval of 5 years by way of deductions on crude oil that they provide to us and from dividends attributable to them. If we had been battling liquidity challenges we wouldn’t have given them such beneficiant cost phrases. As of 2021, when the settlement was signed, the refinery was on the pre-commission stage. As well as, if we had been battling liquidity points, this settlement would have been cash-based reasonably than credit-driven.
“Sadly, NNPCL was later unable to produce the agreed 300 thousand barrels a day of crude on condition that they’d dedicated a higher a part of their crude cargoes to financiers with the expectation of upper manufacturing which they had been unable to realize.”
It added that 12 months of grace was offered for the nationwide oil agency to fulfil its obligations, which had been nonetheless not met, therefore a downgrade of its fairness share to 7.5 per cent.
He defined, “We subsequently gave them 12 months to pay money for the steadiness of their fairness given their incapacity to produce the agreed crude oil quantity. NNPCL failed to fulfill this deadline which expired on June thirtieth 2024. Consequently, their fairness share was revised right down to 7.24 per cent. These occasions have been extensively reported by each events.
“It’s, subsequently, inaccurate to say that NNPCL facilitated a $1bn funding amid liquidity challenges. Like all enterprise companions, NNPCL invested $1bn within the Refinery to accumulate an possession stake of seven.24 per cent stake which is useful to its pursuits.
“NNPCL stays our valued companion in progress, and it’s crucial for all stakeholders to stick to the information and current the narrative within the appropriate context, to information the media in reporting precisely for the advantage of our stakeholders and the general public,” the assertion concluded.