Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group, says his refinery will not be competing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Dangote, who visited Mele Kyari, the new NNPC group managing director (GMD), said his team will rather partner with the state-run oil company to achieve a win-win situation.
“The most important thing for us is to see how we can partner with NNPC, it is not to see how we can compete with NNPC. We would like NNPC to be part of us and we also want to be part of NNPC. I think that is the only way we can achieve a win-win situation,” Dangote said.
Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, said the refinery will dedicate 53% of its projected 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity to the production of petrol.
He said the company would rely heavily on NNPC’s knowledge of the refining business in Nigeria to achieve its central objective.
In his comments, Mele Kyari, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the refinery is key to achieving the target of making Nigeria self-sufficiency and subsequently, an exporter of petroleum products.
A statement signed by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s spokesman, quoted Kyari as saying that NNPC will give the same level of support to the other promoters of refineries.