A former African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, has alleged that Nigerias present oil production has been effectively mortgaged by the Buhari governments pre-sale of crude oil to smaller refineries as a credit guarantee, leading to a scarcity for domestic refineries.
Speaking about the alleged promise of crude oil sale to ?angote, during a television programme, he stated that contractual agreements supersede promises in the oil and gas sector. Kachikwu identified that the alleged promise given to ?angote for oil products is irrelevant without a binding contract. He questioned the existence of such a contract and suggested that ?angote should seek legal recourse if obligations were not met.
He queried, “Does ?angote have any contract with anybody for that product? If he does have a contract and they failed to meet their obligations, then he can go ahead to court. But I suspect that there might not be any contract. And then we have several refineries in Nigeria, and ?angote Refinery now happens to be the largest.
“But outside Dangote Refinery, you have the Government-owned refineries; and you have smaller refineries, such as Walter Smith and others. And what the NUPRC has said is that they have given several allocations to these people; but we also forget that the last administration entered into a lot of loan agreements. The Buhari government has pre-sold our oil to the smaller refineries on loan.
“They used our oil which we are producing right now as a guarantee. And what this essentially means is that the quantum of oil that most people expect that Nigeria has to meet its domestic requirement for our domestic refineries is not as it should be. People need to understand that we are actually in a mess.
