Dan Kunle, a renowned energy expert, says the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) missed the opportunity to position itself as a competitor to Dangote Petroleum Refinery by failing to acquire and rehabilitate the government-owned refineries.
Gatekeepers News reports that Kunle spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show, addressing recent tensions between DAPPMAN and the Dangote refinery.
On September 13, DAPPMAN had raised concerns about the quality of the refinery’s products and warned against creating a monopoly. The refinery, however, dismissed the claims.
Kunle said stakeholders had long expected DAPPMAN to mobilise capital and invest strategically once it became clear the Dangote refinery was coming on stream.
“They would have mobilised capital and negotiated with the federal government to sell the existing government-owned refineries to them and use their money to rehabilitate it and compete with Dangote. They didn’t do that,” he said.
According to him, Dangote’s refinery represents a new dawn for Nigeria’s downstream sector.
“They now see clearly that the day has broken from darkness. So 12 hours of darkness is over. Light has come, and the light in this case is Dangote refinery,” Kunle added.
The energy expert argued that while Dangote is exporting competitiveness, importers are only “dumping inflation” into the country.
“So the game is just over for the local importers. Because if you export everything out and they are importing, it means they are importing inflation to the country while Aliko is exporting competitiveness outside the country,” he said.
He cautioned that DAPPMAN’s stance could discourage potential investors like BUA Group.
“If all this noise will continue to distract Dangote refinery and distract new potential investors like BUA, who will now become very afraid of going to the sector, it means they will now even reinforce the status of Dangote to be the single player,” he said.
Kunle described DAPPMAN as “an enemy of the state” for not investing in the sector while trying to undermine those who have. He argued that security agencies may need to step in.
He also contrasted the benefits of local refining with the costs of continued imports.
“The price that DAPPMAN wants to protect is against the citizens of Nigeria. If you take the gantry price from Dangote refinery today and deliver it across the country, you will be saving by not taking the product from the single-port mooring (SPM). Because it will cost N75 a litre if you go via SPM. Then the demurrage for importing is about $1 billion per year. Dangote refinery has ended such expenses,” Kunle said.
