The Dangote Group, which is currently building a refinery, has reacted to the lingering fuel scarcity in the country by assuring that when the plant comes on stream, Nigeria would be transformed from a fuel importing country to an exporting one.
The Executive Director, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communications of the Group, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, told newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday that the time has come for Nigeria to completely deregulated the downstream industry.
As stated by him, “The kind of reason that has compelled the government to fix petroleum product prices has not been tenable.
“The refining industry is a global industry; if you use those international benchmarks, you shouldn’t really worry about the price.
“That plant itself is the largest single refinery plant anywhere in the world. In addition to the refinery, we are also going to produce some petrochemical products from the same complex.
“These are polyethylene and polypropylene,” the stated, urging the government to deregulate the downstream sector so that investors could play in an open market.
The Executive Director continued that “One would prefer if it was deregulated so that we know that we are playing in the open market.
“The key issue is that if I buy crude, whether from Nigeria or anywhere else, I buy at an international price. If I produce a product and want to sell, I should sell that product at an international price.
“So, I will not be affected by the decision of local pricing; it is on that concept that we went into refining.
“We expect that we will buy our input, especially crude, for international market price, and that when we produce products, we will sell those products at international prices,” Ahmed stated.
.....