The management of AIPCC Energy Limited, operators of the Edo Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited (ERPCL), has raised the alarm over the failure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to supply it crude oil for production.
Speaking to journalists in Benin-City at the weekend, the management of the refinery, said the firm is facing significant challenges due to a persistent lack of crude supply despite being a fully functional 1,000 barrels per day stream crude oil refinery.
The refinery said in spite of the disclosure by the Dangote Refinery on the refusal of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the directive by President Bola Tinubu that the establishment should supply crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other Modular Refineries in the country in Naira denomination, the Edo Refinery is yet to get any supply from the relevant authorities.
Representative of the company, Segun Okeni, who spoke to journalists said the refinery, which required 1,000 barrels per day stream crude can barely function at full installed capacity.
Okeni said that although the company has had crude oil supply agreements with Seplat and ND Western since 2022, bureaucratic bottlenecks have prevented the refinery from accessing the much-needed resource.
He alleged that in 2021, ERPCL’s letter addressed to the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, after series of meetings and constant communication with him was ignored.
According to him, “On 18th August 2021, our team led by our 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,” the letter was dated 22 July 2022.”
He also 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 NNPCL Head 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.”
The ERPCL representative however, noted that despite these meetings, correspondences and communications with NNPCL over the past three years on the issues of crude oil supply, nothing was done.
