Stakeholders in the oil sector have kicked against Dangote Refinery dominating the industry saying it will not only lead to fuel scarcity but job loss as well as shutdown of major outlets across the country.

This was the view at the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) which was held on Thursday at the Chida Hotel, Abuja.

The warning was coming two weeks to the commencement of distribution of petroleum products by the Dangote Refinery across the country to ease transportation problems and bring down the price of petroleum products especially fuel and diesel.

Nigerian Tribune recall that in June, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced that it has invested N720 billion in 4,000 CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)-powered trucks for the nationwide distribution of petroleum products. According to the Company, it is part of its initiative to directly supply fuel to petrol stations, industrial facilities and other bulk consumers, bypassing traditional depots and middlemen, and is scheduled to begin on August 15 and expected to save Nigerians over N1.7 trillion annually.

But the President of NOGASA, Bennett Korie, while making his remarks at the event said Dangote’s refusal to engage or allow its members to be part of the distribution chain is a clear and red signal that will see Dangote control the whole sector as the sole refiner, distributor and retailer and which on the long run could lead to fuel scarcity, job loss and eventual shutdown of members’ outlets across Nigeria.

While appealing to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter to curb against monopoly in the oil sector as it has happened with cement where only one man determines the price, Korie said they were not against Dangote’s success but that things must be put in proper perspective.

The NOGASA boss said, “We want to plead with Mr President to intervene in this matter by telling Dangote to slow down, go by the rules of the game. Nobody is against the refinery and if there is anybody that supported Dangote Refinery more, it is this organisation.

“But when this thing came up, we said, no, we need to give you idea how to go about it. Even though we have not sat with him one on one, we’ve never one day sat with him, we are not worried anymore. What is important to us is that he is blending. The product is coming out and Nigerians are enjoying the product that is blending today.

“So it’s important that you concentrate on this refinery, blend enough for us and sell some to other countries. That way, the job there will be stable, our own here will be stable. We are capable to distribute products. All we need you to do, blend, sell to depot owners and they will go there and buy and distribute to the end users. That way you balance the system.

“If you have 1,000 staff in working with you, here, we have 3,000 workers. We have 4,000 Nigerians benefiting from this business. But when you ask the remaining 3,000 people to go home, you have only 1,000 and maybe you have foreigners working there, we don’t know, this will affect all the system.”

He added, “Some people will be thinking maybe because we don’t want him to do this or because of competition, no, we don’t want what happened to NNPC to happen to Dangote Refinery. The reason is, before now, NNPC refined product and distribute their product through KPMC.

“At that time, everything was moving smoothly, until people that advised Dangote today, went to advise NNPC to start doing distribution directly, which is this filling station that you have in NNPC filling stations. As soon as this NNPC filling station started, that is when our refinery started going down.

“Because they were concentrating on their filling stations. I’m not saying they are not paying attention to refineries, but you can’t do it alone. You are blending at the same time transporting, and add filling station in your operation. We need to call the attention of the government to intervene by telling him if only you distribute product, there would be serious scarcity. Imagine if all of us said, do it alone now, no problem. I close my station, everybody close their business, everybody close their business and him to do it alone, how will provide products for everybody.”

Corroborating Korie’s view, the national President of Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, said the import of what Dangote’s foray into product distribution will only be clear to Nigerians when the havoc has been wreaked and is too late. He called Nigerians’ attention to how the cement distribution network by Dangote started and the effects of what the citizens are already going through.

“I want to draw your attention to the fact that we also have similar situations in our cement industry, where you are seeing the same trucks supplying cement to those small container shops that are for cement.

“Since when the cement is produced from the same factory, and also distributed to those very critical distribution centres, have you bought cement for N115 again? We are buying now for N10,000 plus. So, don’t be deceived that there is good news, because somebody is bleeding for this and there will be payment time for it.

“With a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, which has now been up to 700,000 barrels, PETROAN simply argues that Dangote refineries should be competing with global refineries, not operating as a distributor in the downstream. We have NOGASA that’s more than able to do it. We have NARTO that’s able to do it,” Gillis-Harry stated.

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