The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has claimed that substandard petroleum products are being imported into the country and sold to unsuspecting Nigerians.

Dangote made the claim on Saturday during the visit of the leadership of the House of Representatives, led by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu, to the Dangote Refinery in Lagos State.

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The business tycoon said there was a need for an investigation to be carried out to determine if there are some saboteurs in the oil sector or to find out if there are ulterior motives to demarket his business.

Africa’s richest man also said the best way to determine the quality of products being imported and sold to Nigerians is by going to the filling stations and buying and testing them.

He said, “The most important thing, Your Excellency, is to note that the imported one they are encouraging, is the spec in the test, but in certain cases, when you check (independently), different results will show.”

Refuting the allegation made by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, that petroleum products from his refinery are substandard, Dangote said his products are better than imported ones, and they comply with the highest standards.

Dangote, who provided evidence to back up his claim, said diesel bought from two filling stations and that from his refinery was tested at the refinery’s laboratories using the ASTM D4294 method.

The Dangote Group President said the diesel, which was one of the best in terms of quality at the time the refinery started, had a sulphur content of between 600 parts per million and 650 ppm.

While stating that the quality of his diesel has improved as the sulphur content has reduced to 87 ppm, Dangote added that by next Monday, it will reduce to 50 ppm.

He further said the result does not only proof the reality of products from his refinery, but it also shows that substandard petroleum products are being imported into the country.

Dangote noted that the sulphur content of the diesel bought from the two filling stations was over 1,800 ppm and 2,600 ppm, respectively.

He said, “Our quality is about 600 to 650 ppm and is one of the best in terms of quality at that time when we started. But as of today, we’re at 87 ppm.

“I want to plead with the regulator to come at any time, whether Sunday or Monday or take the sample, and I guarantee you before he gets here, our ppm will be even below 10.

“When we’re coming here, His Excellency, the Speaker said, can we please wait to pick up samples from two filling stations? And also when we get into our plant, they will pick a sample to check the results. The results are actually out, and I’m going to share the same results with you.

“The sample from TotalEnergies’s diesel showed 1,829ppm sulphur concentration. The sample from Matrix Retail showed 2,653 ppm. Matrix was 61 below 66, and Total is 26 flashpoint. Our flash point showed 96. If you want to do the rest, we can run it at any given time.

“Today I want to announce to Nigerians that our parameters today are extremely, very good parameters. By the end of next week, we should be on 50 ppm and by August, it should be down to 10 ppm.”

He also called on the House of Representatives to investigate the quality of laboratories being used by the NMDPR to test imported products and compare that with the one at his refinery.

Dangote informed the lawmakers that he was also open to independent testing of his refinery’s products as that would only attest to their quality while exposing the problem with some of the products being sold by other players in the sector.

The businessman also dismissed monopoly claims, insisting that the Dangote Group did not receive any special incentive when the refinery was being built.

He said, “If you look at all our operations at Dangote (Group), we add value; we take local raw materials and turn them into products, and we sell. We have never consciously or unconsciously stopped anybody from doing the same business that we are doing.

“When we first came into cement production, it was only Lafarge that was operating here in Nigeria…Nobody ever called Lafarge a monopoly.

“Monopoly is when you stop people, you block them through legal means. No, it is a level playing field whereby whatever Dangote was given in cement, for example, other people were given because some of them even got more than us.

“In the refinery, we did not, and I repeat, we did not collect one single incentive from the Federal Government of Nigeria or even Lagos State. Yes, the Lagos State gave us a good deal, but we paid $100m for the land. It wasn’t a free land; we paid for it.

“Majority of the population are with us. So, we are not discouraged; we will continue what we are doing.”

He also announced that the company would abandon its plans to enter Nigeria’s steel industry to prevent accusations of attempting to monopolize the market.

Dangote explained that going into the steel industry would involve encouraging the importation of raw materials from overseas, which contradicts the firm’s core mandate.

He said, “You know, about doing a new business which we announced, that is, the steel. Actually, our own board has decided that we shouldn’t do the steel because if we do the steel business, we will be called all sorts of names like Monopoly. And then also, imports will be encouraged. So we don’t want to go into that.”

Dangote, however, urged other Nigerians to invest in the industry to help boost the country’s economy.

He added, “Let other Nigerians go and do it. We are not the only Nigerians here. There are some Nigerians with more cash than us. They should bring that money from Dubai and other parts of the world and invest in our own fatherland.”

In his remarks, Speaker Abbas said going by the presentation and the contradictory claims, there was a need for an investigation.

“I don’t know how we have this contradiction of two players representing the public and private sector. I think it is something we need to investigate further to find out if there are ulterior motives,” he said.