The AIPCC Energy Limited, operators of the Edo Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited (ERPCL), has raised the alarm over the failure of the National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to supply crude to functional 1,000 barrels per day refinery.
It said despite Dangote refinery’s alarm on the refusal of NNPCL and the directive by President Bola Tinubu that it should supply crude oil to the refinery and other modular refineries in the country in naira, the Edo refinery is yet to get any supply from the relevant authorities.
Addressing journalists in Benin, the company’s representative, Segun Okeni, said the 1,000 barrels per day refinery can barely function at full installed capacity due to lack of crude oil supply.
Okeni said though the company has existing crude oil supply agreements with Seplat and ND Western since 2022, bureaucratic bottlenecks have prevented the refinery from accessing the much-needed resource.
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“In 2021, ERPCL’s letter addressed to Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL after having series of meetings and constant communication to him was not attended to.
“On August 18, 2021, ERPCL’s team led by its chairman, met with the NNPCL CEO and its top management team to discuss our intention to buy crude oil from NNPCL and we immediately wrote seeking crude supply.”
He added, “In July 2022, the representatives of NNPC (from HQ Abuja and NPDC Benin) visited our facility for site inspection and to confirm the mechanical completion of the Edo refinery. In September 2022, we were invited for a commercial negotiation meeting with the NNPCLhead of terms, after which we sent a follow-up letter identifying the oil fields from which we can offtake crude oil”.
“In March 2022, we also wrote to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, informing it of our refinery status, future projects and our challenges of lack of crude oil supply to our refinery. We had also written and had a meeting with the NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL) between November 2022 and March 2023, indicating our severe need for crude oil supply from oil fields where NEPL has equity stakes.” he said.
He explained that despite these meetings, correspondences and communications with NNPCL over the past three years on the issues of crude oil supply, nothing was done.
He listed other key issues encountered by the refinery to include inability of NNPCL to assign any of the preferred fields to allocate crude to the company since it started having engagement with the NNPCL’s management in August 18, 2021.
“Even with the options given to allocate crude to the refinery from ND Western, First Hydrocarbon, and Seplat, nothing happened till date”.
He sought Kyari for NUIMS to give occurrence to the Seplat-ERPCL agreement to enable Edo refinery to start lifting crude oil from Oil Mining License.
Okeni noted that if the smallest refinery is not getting crude, it will discourage investors from coming to invest in the country.
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