Officials from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. have illicit operations in Malta, from where they import substandard petroleum products, including lubricants and fuel, the owner of a Nigerian refinery alleged before the Nigerian House of Representatives joint committee on petroleum resources.
“Some of the terminals, some of the NNPC people and some traders have opened a blending plant somewhere off Malta,” Africa’s richest man and CEO of Dangote Refinery Aliko Dangote said to the committee. It’s a claim those who are said to be involved categorically deny.
Dangote was in turn accused by Farouk Ahmed, the CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, that diesel from his refinery is inferior quality compared to imported fuel.
The Dangote refinery has capacity to process 650,000 barrels per day and when fully operational will be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility. It also has the potential to shrink petroleum product imports to Nigeria by 60% to 160,000 barrels per day by 2025, from 400,000 bpd in 2023, according to Nigerian media. Those invested in product importation will take a substantial hit.
Until the refinery was built, there was no refining capacity in Nigeria, despite it being the continent’s biggest oil producer. According to the government, the country imports products to the value of more than U.S.$25 billion per year, and NNPC is the sole licenser of imported petroleum products.
Denial
Imports of petroleum products from Malta to Nigeria were $47.5 million in 2013, rose to $177 million in 2015 and then dwindled to zero between 2016 and 2022. Suddenly in 2023, they skyrocketed to $2.24 billion, accounting for almost 10% of Nigeria’s total, according to data compiled in the United Nations Comtrade database and discovered by Nigerian media. Malta is a relatively small island with a small petroleum industry.
In a message posted on social media on July 23, Mele Kyari, group managing director of NNPC, refuted Dangote’s claim and said he was unaware of anyone from the state-owned energy company who owns a blending plant in Malta.
“I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world with the exception of a local mini-agricultural venture,” Kyari stated in the post. “Neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world.”
Emeka Obidike, executive secretary of the Lubricant Producers Association of Nigeria, agreed that Dangote’s allegation was fanciful. He added that even if there is such a blending plant in Malta, it would have no bearing on the Nigerian lubricant market.
“Don’t forget that the Nigerian lubricant market is big, and some multinationals have blending plants outside the country from which they import lubricant products into the country, but that has not affected the local lubricant market,” Obidike told Lube Report.
“The fact that people import lubricant products from outside Nigeria does not make such products superior to local lubricant products. The allegation that some officials of the state-owned petroleum corporation own and operate a blending plant in Malta won’t have any effect on the local lubricant market in Nigeria.”
Leak
However, leaked documents seen by local media implicate a Nigerian company Matrix Energy in the importation of off-spec fuel and other products from Russia via Malta. Maltese waters are now the number-one destination for ship-to-ship transfers at sea of sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products.
Matrix Energy’s managing director is Abdulkabir Aliu is also a member of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council. Aliu has opened lawsuit to clear his name of wrong doing.
Another council member Amina Maina, is a senior executive at MRS Oil and Gas, which is also implicated in the leaked documents. On the MRS board is Sayyu Dantata, Dangote’s half brother.