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United States targets Russia's Gazprombank with brand-new sanctions, Treasury website shows
The U.S. enforced fresh sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, wielding its most powerful sanctioning tool versus the bank as President Joe Biden steps up actions to penalize Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before leaving workplace in January. The relocation successfully kicks Gazprombank - among Russia's. largest banks - out of the U.S. banking system, bans their trade. with Americans and freezes their U.S. possessions. Gazprombank is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas business. Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022,. Ukraine has been prompting the U.S. to enforce more sanctions on the. bank, which receives payments for gas from Gazprom's. customers in Europe. The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration. permitted Kyiv to utilize U.S. ATACMS rockets to strike Russian. territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest. variety rockets Washington has actually supplied for such attacks on. Russia, on the war's 1,000 th day. The Treasury likewise imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium. Russian banks to cut the nation's connections to the. international financial system and avoid it from abusing it to. spend for technology and devices required for the war. It warned. that foreign financial institutions that keep reporter. relationships with the targeted banks involves considerable. sanctions danger. This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to. evade U.S. sanctions and fund and equip its military, stated. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. We will continue to take. decisive steps against any monetary channels Russia utilizes to. support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine. Along with the sanctions, Treasury likewise released 2 new. basic licenses authorizing U.S. entities to wind down. transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial. organizations, and to take actions to divest from financial obligation or equity. provided by Gazprombank. The sanctions were enforced under a Biden executive order. It. was not right away clear whether President-elect Donald Trump. could remove them if he chose to take a different position on. Russia. After the Russian intrusion of Ukraine in 2022, the Treasury. put financial obligation and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms,. consisting of Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural. Bank. The U.S. Treasury has actually likewise worked to supply Ukraine with. funds from windfall earnings of frozen Russian possessions. Gazprombank is a channel for Russia to acquire military. materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury stated. The. Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers,. including for battle rewards, and to compensate the households of. its soldiers killed in the war. The administration thinks the fresh sanctions enhance. Ukraine's position on the battleground and ability to accomplish a. just peace, a source familiar stated.
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Italy approves \Save Milan\ expense to revive structure sector
The Italian parliament on Thursday approved a bill to change town planning laws to resolve a building stalemate in Italy's financial capital Milan triggered by lots of investigations by district attorneys. The costs, dubbed Conserve Milan, was submitted by the judgment centre-right majority with the recommendation of the main centre-left opposition PD celebration. Following the clearance in the lower house, it still needs to be authorized by the Senate. Milan had actually been on a roll since 2015, when the Exposition global exhibition assisted to change the city into a hot area for developers. Ever since, it has actually attracted more than $30. billion of realty investment, according to Reuters. estimations. But problems from Milan locals challenging the. mushrooming of multi-storey buildings have triggered. examinations into alleged abuses in the fast-tracking of. building permits, with more than 100 active or planned structure. sites having actually stalled. The new expense effectively gives a green light to the faster. and more economical procedures for home builders embraced by the Milan. municipality up until now. Federico Filippo Oriana, who heads Italy's property. developers and promoters association Aspesi, invited the. decision. The interpretative nature of this law avoids the risk of. even more conflict, and sets the foundations for a rapid. resumption of property and building activities in Milan that. have been blocked for over a year, Oriana said. The costs implies that new high increases can continue to be built. as replacements for even single-storey buildings by means of an easier. remodelling permit, instead of needing the approval of a more. detailed new building plan. A task considered a new construct needs the designer to make. more onerous social investments, such as large green spaces or. bike lanes. The charges payable to cities for a brand-new build are at least. 3 times greater than those incurred for a conversion,. according to present regulations. Performing a conversion likewise. brings tax breaks. Giancarlo Tancredi, the councillor in charge of urban. renewal for Milan, welcomed the clarity. Now I hope that the climate will end up being calmer which. good sense will dominate on all sides, he stated. There were no remarks from district attorneys, who do not comment. on state laws. The new costs needs to unfreeze structure tasks by dealing with. alleged metropolitan planning law offenses. Nevertheless, many of the. examinations also declare scams and impact peddling by. several suspects, and will therefore continue, according to. legal and judicial sources.
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Russian researchers hail discovery of 32,000-year-old sabre-toothed cat cub
The sabretoothed feline cub is nearly little sufficient to keep in one hand, but its discovery after 32,000 years is a memorable occasion for palaeontologists. It was around 3 weeks old when it died in what is now northeastern Russia - and the permafrost has actually kept it well-preserved ever since. Researchers from the Academy of Sciences in Yakutia in the Far East state it is a special find. No place else has it been found in such good conservation said the academy's Aisen Klimovsky who co-authored a paper on the cub published in the journal Scientific Reports this month. Unlike previous skeletal specimens unearthed in Texas, this cub still has its dark brown fur. This is the first find that will show the world what they truly looked like, said Klimovsky of the Department for the Study of Mammoth Animal at the institute in Yakutsk, the regional capital. It unlocks nature's huge trick, so to speak. Researchers stumbled upon the cub four years ago while digging for massive tusks near the Badyarikha river in Sakha, also known as Yakutia and Russia's biggest republic. Bordering the Arctic Ocean, Yakutia is a vast region of swamps and forests bigger than Argentina, around 95% of which is covered in permafrost. Rising global temperatures brought on by climate modification are melting much of Russia's permafrost, revealing animal stays and other ancient traces. Earlier this year, scientists at the Yakutsk institute were able to study a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass pulled from the melted tundra. The cub becomes part of the homotherium genus, which lived throughout North America, Eurasia and Africa from around 4 million years back to 12,000 years earlier. The animals were about the size of lions when complete grown and are known for their serrated upper incisors. Albert Protopopov, head of the Mammoth Fauna department and a co-author of the Nature paper, stated the discovery would be a. advantage to palaeontologists worldwide. It's a genuine sensation, he informed Reuters.
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Trump 2.0 won't reverse Biden's vital minerals push: Andy Home
Donald Trump has described the Inflation Decrease Act (INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNT) as a green fraud and pledged to repeal it after he goes back to the White Home in January. This is bad news for sectors such as electrical automobiles (EV). and wind power, which have been major recipients of the Biden. administration's signature $369 billion energy shift. legislation. However some of the brand-new green offer cash has likewise been. channeled to the U.S. industrial base, such as the $75 million. designated for an upgrade of Constellium's aluminium. rolling mill in West Virginia. Will this too be clawed back? It appears not likely due to the fact that when. it comes to reconstructing U.S. commercial capability and cutting the. country's critical minerals reliance on China, there is. remarkable cross-party consensus. Indeed, it was then-President Trump who in 2020 stated the. nation's unnecessary dependence on foreign foes for critical. minerals a nationwide emergency. Trump in his 2nd presidency is not likely to reverse the. drive to metallic self-sufficiency. He might even prove to be an. accelerator. INVESTING IN AMERICA Both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of. Defense (DOD) have pumped billions of dollars into rebuilding. U.S. metals capacity. The DOE has mainly directed funds to EV battery inputs. such as lithium, manganese and graphite. The DOD has actually sprayed the cash even more commonly, targeting a. spectrum of mystical elements varying from antimony to. zirconium, consisting of an unknown critical material. incongruously described as necessary both for the security of. human lives and ammunition product packaging. The Biden administration boasts that thanks to government. largesse companies have revealed $120 billion in investment in. domestic battery and crucial minerals capacity. Yet the majority of that investment has been concentrated on the. downstream part of the supply chain. Seventeen brand-new U.S. battery plants have been revealed because. the individual retirement account entered result in July 2022, improving pipeline. capacity by 68% through 2030, according to research house. Standard Mineral Intelligence. When it pertains to purchasing the metals needed to supply. those gigafactories, the majority of the projects receiving federal. funds are those aiming to boost existing recycling capability. New primary smelting tasks stay noticeable by their. lack. Century Aluminum has been granted a potential. $ 500 million to construct a new aluminium smelter however there has actually been. no upgrade considering that the initial announcement in March. Even the DOD's high-priority uncommon earths processing venture. with Australia's Lynas Rare Earths has faced. problem. Earthworks at the Seadrift site in Texas have actually been put. on hold due to problems getting a wastewater authorization, Lynas said. in its latest quarterly report. STUCK IN THE GROUND New smelting capacity needs brand-new mines to supply it and. that's where the U.S. minerals financial investment boom is still. struggling to develop momentum. The majority of the funds committed to the mining sector have actually been. directed at lithium, both for brand-new mines such as Lithium. Americas' Thacker Pass and multiple jobs. explore direct extraction technology. South32's Hermosa zinc-manganese job in Arizona. is a non-lithium stand-out, getting approved for both DOD and DOE. funds and the very first mine to receive the Fast-41 accelerated. allowing process. Many others, nevertheless, remain stuck in the country's tortuous. permitting process. The Biden administration has had a hard time to reconcile its. desire to produce the metals required for the green energy. shift with its environmental qualifications. Huge copper jobs such as the Pebble mine in Alaska and. the Twin Metals job in Minnesota have actually been killed off. Trump has actually currently promised to reverse Biden's 20-year ban on. mining in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota in about 10. to 15 minutes of taking office. That in itself will not be a thumbs-up for the Twin Metals. task, which would still have to get state allowing. sign-off, but it's a sign that the Trump administration won't be. hobbled by the green-on-green cabinet conflict that. characterised the last 4 years. CONCENTRATE ON CHINA A new Trump administration is also likely to take a much. tougher line on critical metal imports from entities linked to. China. Talon Metals has actually been designated funds by both the. DOD and DOE to progress its Tamarack nickel job in Minnesota. and explore for more resource in the state. It's a difficult time to be in the nickel company, though, as a. mining boom in Indonesia has actually crushed costs and required lots of. existing operators out of company. Most of Indonesia's nickel capability is managed either. straight or indirectly by Chinese entities, which has not. stopped U.S. carmakers such as Ford from joining the. Indonesian nickel rush. Price has defeated politics when it pertains to protecting a key. metal for EV batteries. Depending upon the structure of the joint endeavor in between. Ford, Vale and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the nickel from. the brand-new plant in Indonesia could even count as IRA-compliant and. receive federal EV aids. Such sourcing obscurity appears unlikely to survive the Make. America Great Again focus of a new Republican politician administration. Undoubtedly, every sign so far is that Trump 2.0 will double down. on the U.S. minerals self-sufficiency drive, even if it means. accepting that not all of the individual retirement account funds are a green scam. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a. columnist .
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Russia's diamond miner Alrosa to cut production and personnel in 2025
Russia's Alrosa, the world's. biggest manufacturer of rough diamonds by volume, may suspend some. production in 2025 and cut personnel as it comes to grips with low global. rates, the sanctionshit company's CEO, Pavel Marinychev, stated. on Thursday. Marinychev said the international diamond market remained in a deep. crisis, with rates succumbing to a 2nd consecutive year. For. Alrosa, this crisis is exacerbated by a restriction on Russian diamond. sales to G7 and EU countries as part of Western sanctions. Particular locations that are less rewarding, which are at the. borderline of profitability, might be subject to suspension throughout. this crisis period, Marinychev told a regional tv station. in the Yakutia area of Russia's Far East, where most of. Alrosa's production is based. He included that production in these areas could be quickly. resumed if the market recuperates. We are presently in a rather difficult situation. Our job. is to endure and suffer this period, to await costs to. begin increasing once again, Marinychev added. The Russian government. in some cases purchases diamonds from Alrosa through a state fund. Marinychev stated that the company prepared to cut its labour. expenses by 10% in the coming year. This procedure would include some. decreases of its 35,000 staff, although he did not specify the. level of the cuts.
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EXPLAINER-' The Corrupt Solar Project': US findings associated to Adani's bribery charges
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been arraigned by U.S. district attorneys for conspiring with executives of a formerly New York listed business to create a. $ 265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials to boost their. solar power company. Adani Group rejected the claims as unwarranted, while. Indian federal government officials haven't commented up until now. Here is an overview of the examination and claims. exposed in the U.S. indictment: WHAT ARE THE PRIMARY ALLEGATIONS? U.S. prosecutors charged Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani. who is director at Adani Green, and six others with alleged. bribery and fraud associated to renewable energy tasks in India. that benefitted the magnate's business and India's Azure Power,. which was listed on the NYSE until late 2023. In 2020, the unsealed indictment from Wednesday reveals,. executives of Adani Green and Azure intentionally and wilfully. conspired and accepted corruptly deal, authorise and pay. bribes to government authorities in India to get or keep. service advantages. Adani and his executives have actually also been accused of making. incorrect and misleading statements to investors and loan providers in the. United States regarding the company's anti-bribery commitments. and practices while raising cash from them. Between 2021 and 2024, Adani raised more than $3 billion in. loans and bonds, including from financiers in the United States. Gautam and Sagar Adani were engaged in the bribery scheme. throughout a September 2021 note offering by Adani Green that raised. $ 750 million, including around $175 million from U.S. financiers. The Adani Green using products consisted of. statements about its anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts. that were materially false or misleading, the U.S. Securities. and Exchange Commission stated. The Adanis earlier this year made misleading statements to. the general public, the Indian stock exchange and financiers regardless of. being warned of the U.S. examination in 2023, the. district attorneys declared. HOW WERE KICKBACKS TRACKED, PAID? Sagar Adani, executive director of Adani Green and nephew of. Gautam Adani, used his smart phone to track details of the. allurements used to Indian authorities, U.S. authorities alleged. In a meeting in between some Adani and Azure executives in. 2022, Gautam Adani detailed elements of the bribery scheme. including steps he personally took to provide money to government. officials, the U.S. authorities stated. Executives from Azure also prepared an analysis utilizing Excel. and PowerPoint to sum up the various ways in which it could. repay Adani Green for the kickbacks it had actually paid to benefit both. companies. For among the jobs of 2.3 gigawatts of power,. the bribe was calculated at around $30,000 per megawatt. One way gone over was to describe the payment internally at. Azure as a advancement fee, however it rather used another alternative. of getting Azure to transfer among its projects to Adani in. lieu of part of the payment, U.S. authorities declared. Azure in a declaration said former officers of the company. referenced in the U.S. indictment were no longer related to. the business, and the company continued to work together with U.S. authorities. WHAT WERE THE POWER PREDICTS IN CONCERN? U.S. authorities called the dealings in their indictment. The Corrupt Solar Task. Between 2019 and 2020, Adani Green and Azure were granted. renewable resource tenders by Solar power Corporation of India. ( SECI), a federal government-owned entity. The project included structure solar plants in several Indian. states. U.S. authorities declared Adani and others devised a plan. to pay off Indian state federal government authorities to enter into. contracts with SECI, which would benefit Adani subsidiaries. and Azure. HOW DID U.S. FEDERAL AGENTS EXAMINE, SEIZE PROOF? In March 2023, FBI unique agents approached Sagar Adani. with information of the grand jury's ongoing investigation into the. group and other entities. They took custody of electronic. gadgets in Sagar's belongings and served him with a search. warrant and grand jury subpoena. The search warrant identified offenses, individuals and. entities under investigation by the U.S. for violations of the. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, and wire fraud. WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE ADANI GROUP? Adani Group in a declaration stated it would seek all possible. legal recourse. Indian lawyers stated there was a possibility the matter could. be settled in between the Indian magnate and U.S. authorities, and. the billionaire can also seek a termination of the indictment. Debopriyo Moulik, a criminal attorney in New Delhi, said that. given that an arrest warrant had been released by U.S. authorities,. they would have to approach the Indian government through the. Indian embassy to execute it. The grand jury in its order said if any of the executives. were found guilty of the charges they would need to surrender any. property or earnings derived directly or indirectly as an outcome. of the offences.
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Britain sanctions Angola's dos Santos, Ukrainian oligarch Firtash in corruption crackdown
Britain has barred Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos and Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash and has frozen their UK possessions, the federal government announced on Thursday, in what it said became part of a new crackdown on ' dirty cash'. The procedures were the first step in tightening Britain's. anti-corruption sanctions program as promised in July's election,. the Labour federal government stated. These deceitful people selfishly deny their. fellow people of much-needed funding for education, healthcare. and infrastructure - for their own enrichment, Foreign. Secretary David Lammy said in a declaration. Dos Santos, whose daddy Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled. Angola for 38 years up until 2017, is Africa's first female. billionaire and has actually dealt with corruption allegations in Angola and. somewhere else for many years. She rejects the allegations and says she is. the target of a long-running political vendetta. Firtash is wanted by Ukrainian and U.S. authorities on. suspicion of embezzling almost $500 million including Ukraine's. gas transit system. He states the charges lack legal. foundation. A Latvian oligarch was the 3rd primary private approved,. with Britain likewise announcing procedures versus five other. people connected to the trio. Lammy stated the charges were the start of a crackdown. I devoted to handling kleptocrats and the dirty money. that empowers them when I became Foreign Secretary and these. sanctions mark the primary step in delivering this aspiration, he. stated. Britain stated dos Santos abused her position at Angolan state. oil firm Sonangol and telecoms business Unitel to embezzle at. least 350 million pounds ($ 440 million). Dos Santos lost an appeal to reverse an order freezing up. to 580 million pounds of her possessions in September as part a. lawsuit at London's High Court brought by Unitel. Worldwide authorities. agency Interpol has provided a red notice for her. A spokesperson for dos Santos did not right away reply to a. ask for discuss the government-imposed sanctions. Britain said Firtash had actually extracted numerous countless. pounds from Ukraine through corruption, and concealed 10s of. countless pounds of ill-gotten gains in the UK residential or commercial property market. alone. Britain likewise sanctioned his partner Lada Firtash, who it said. held UK properties on his behalf consisting of the website of the old. Brompton Road underground rail station in London. Latvian oligarch and politician Aivars Lembergs, who was put. on a U.S. sanctions list in 2019 for alleged corruption, was. also approved, as was his daughter Liga Lemberga. The British. federal government stated Lembergs had mistreated his political position to. devote bribery and wash money.
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China crude oil imports set for November rebound, but it's cost not demand: Russell
China's crude imports are on track to rebound in November to the highest in three months, but the increasing cravings of the world's biggest oil importer is more about cost than rising need. Crude oil arrivals may reach around 11.4 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, the most because August and the third-highest month so far in 2024, according to vessel-tracking and port information assembled by commodity experts Kpler and LSEG Oil Research. If the final result for November is in line with the projections, it will be the highest regular monthly imports since August's. main figure of 11.56 million bpd, and the third-strongest. month up until now this year. Nevertheless, presuming the increase in unrefined imports is because. of a healing in need might be optimistic, offered China's. refinery throughput stays weak and financial indicators. continue to reveal the world's second-biggest economy is. struggling for growth momentum. Most likely the boost in November imports is down to. price, with refiners benefiting from the weakening prices at. a time when cargoes arriving this month would have been. arranged. International benchmark Brent crude futures dropped to. their lowest level for 33 months in early September, trading as. low as $68.68 a barrel on Sept. 10. The rate had been trending lower given that early July, when it. reached as high as $87.95 a barrel amid rising stress in the. Middle East and the decision by the OPEC+ group of exporters to. defer an organized increase in production. The lag between when cargoes are bought and physically. delivered to China ranges from about six weeks to three months,. depending on where the oil is sourced from. This indicates that unrefined getting here in November was protected at a. time when oil rates were hitting the lowest levels in almost. three years. China's refiners have in the previous shown that they will buy. more crude than they need when they deem rates to be low, and. cut back on imports when they see rates as having increased too. high, or acquired too rapidly. This dynamic has actually been apparent in China's imports of crude. oil up until now in 2024, with arrivals decreasing by 420,000 bpd in. the very first 10 months of the year, with much of the weak point. coming after crude rates rallied highly in the 2nd. quarter. Given that the September low crude rates have actually recovered. somewhat, reaching above $80 a barrel in early October before. settling into a range largely in between $70 and $75, ending at. $ 73.10 on Wednesday. The consistent rates might suggest that Chinese refiners will be. delighted to purchase unrefined volumes enough to satisfy their requirements,. instead of purchase surplus oil to store for later processing. However, the election of Donald Trump to a 2nd term as. U.S. president may modify the computations of Chinese purchasers,. especially those who acquire Iranian crude. IRAN CONCERNS Trump and members of his inbound administration have made. it clear that they intend to return to his hardline policy of. enforcing sanctions versus Iran due to the fact that of Tehran's nuclear. programme and its assistance of militants groups battling Israel. Traders report that this is already leading to some Chinese. refiners, particularly independent processors, pulling back from. buying Iranian crude. While total crude supply suffices to comfortably. manage any loss of Iranian barrels from the market, it is likely. to impact local rates. If Chinese refiners turn to other Middle Eastern grades,. it's likely that rates in the region will increase relative to. other crudes. Already there is some evidence to suggest this is happening,. with the Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps , which. tracks the premium of Brent crude over regional Middle East. marker Dubai, declining in recent weeks. The premium for Brent over Dubai was $1.44 a barrel on. Wednesday, below the 2024 high of $2.98 on Aug. 30. The views expressed here are those of the author, a writer. .
Nigeria's Dangote Refinery accuses oil majors of obstructing regional unrefined purchase
An executive of the Dangote Refinery said on Sunday oil majors were blocking its access to locally produced crude oil by offering it above market price or claiming it was not available, requiring the company to count on pricey imports.
The $20 billion refinery, billed to be the biggest in Africa and Europe at complete throttle, began production in January however has actually had a hard time to find sufficient crude to meet its 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity.
It is importing around 10 crude oil freights monthly, oil traders stated. In May, it tendered for two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude monthly for a. year beginning in July, according to a tender file seen by. .
It is either the oil majors are intentionally requesting for. ludicrous premium or they simply state that crude is not. readily available, Devakumar Edwin, an executive at Dangote oil. refinery, said in a statement.
He said the refinery paid $6 above the market cost, forcing. it to cut output and depend upon imported crude from countries. such as the United States. This, he stated, raised its production. expense.
Oil producers in Nigeria through their trade group, the Oil. Producers Trade Section (OPTS), did not right away respond to. the accusation.
The Dangote oil refinery was expected to receive 325,000 bpd. from oil business in the domestic crude supply obligation. guidelines issued by among the nation's oil regulators, the. Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), last. December. Nevertheless, oil manufacturers have been unable to satisfy the. quota.
Nigeria's 2021 oil market law developed two oil regulators,. the NUPRC for the exploration segment and the Nigerian Midstream. and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to. regulate gas and downstream sectors.
Edwin likewise implicated the NMDPRA of indiscriminately granting. import licenses to sustain traders who import filthy fuels from. Russia while its refinery adapts to the sub-regional fuel. standard.
The NMDPRA did not react to a request for comment.
Following a price cap troubled Russian products by the. European Union in 2015, along with ecological concerns,. nations like Netherlands and Belgium have prepared guidelines to. tighten up the quality of motor fuels exported mainly to West. Africa.
Edwin stated Nigeria's decision to permit fuel traders to. indiscriminately import dirtier items has compelled Dangote. oil refinery to tap foreign markets.
It has actually exported 3.5 billion litres of refined items,. representing 90% of its production, Edwin said.
(source: Reuters)