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Judge rejects Nigerian NNPC's bid to stop Dangote refinery lawsuit

Judge rejects Nigerian NNPC's bid to stop Dangote refinery lawsuit

A Nigerian court on Tuesday overruled the objection of NNPC Ltd, the state oil company to be included in a suit filed by Dangote Oil Refinery to stop gasoline imports into West Africa.

The 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery built by billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos has been touted as having the potential to secure energy independence for Nigeria, which, though a major oil producer, has long been forced to import refined products.

The refinery claims that the sector regulator Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency is in violation of law for continuing to grant gasoline import permits to NNPC and fuel traders.

In its lawsuit, filed before Nigeria's Federal High Court it claims that the law only allows imports to cover production shortages. The suit is seeking damages of 100 billion naira (65 million dollars) from NMDPRA and five smaller fuel retailers.

The Dangote Refinery says that its output is enough to meet the domestic demand. It began processing crude oil into jet fuel, diesel, naphtha, and gasoline in January of last year, and in September it produced gasoline.

NNPC objected that the refinery production still falls short of the domestic demand and that gasoline imports are necessary.

The report also stated that Dangote's filing was based on a nonexistent company called Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited became a limited-liability company in 2022, and officially changed its name.

Judge Inyang Ekwo dismissed these objections and adjourned the case to May 6, when he will be expected to consider NMDPRA's and NNPC’s request to dismiss the lawsuit due to a lack in merit, and their counter argument that the refinery seeks to create a monopoly.

NNPC and Dangote Oil Refinery refused to comment.

According to the Statistics Bureau, Nigeria is one of Africa's biggest gasoline markets. Last year it spent 10.42 trillion naira on imports.

This is not the first time that Dangote has been in a dispute with Nigerian regulators.

The Dangote refinery had previously accused the NMDPRA for allowing substandard fuels to be imported and criticized the upstream regulator of not enforcing law that requires oil producers to give priority to domestic refineries.

Both regulators denied the allegations.

(source: Reuters)