BREAKING: Dangote Refinery Fire Contains As Operation Continues—The genius Media Nigeria reports that the minor fire incident that was earlier reported at Dangote refinery has been completely put out.
This was contained in a statement sent to this publication on Wednesday afternoon.
‘’We have swiftly contained a minor fire incident at our effluent treatment plant (ETP), today Wednesday 26th of June’’
‘’There is no cause for alarm as the refinery is operating and there is no recorded injury or body harm to all our staff on duty.’’
Recall, Explosions was heard on Wednesday at the multi billion dollars Dangote refinery located in Lagos State.
In a video sighted by TGM, thick smoke was seen going up from a section of the yet-to-be completed refinery.
Some workers at the refinery were also heard calling for help on how to extinguish the raging inferno.
Meanwhile, this is coming after Mr Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria of sabotaging the refinery.
He said these companies are working frantically to sabotage the operations of Dangote Oil Refinery and Petrochemicals.
Devakumar who disclosed this during a one-day training event for Energy Editors organised by the Dangote Group, said that the IOCs are inflating premium prices for local crude oil, making it difficult for the refinery to purchase crude at sustainable rates.
Following this alleged sabotage by the oil mafias, the refinery is forced to source crude from distant countries such as the United States, which has significantly driven up costs.
“Despite the efforts of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to allocate crude for us, the IOCs are willfully obstructing our attempts to acquire local crude,” Edwin stated. “It appears their aim is to see our refinery fail.”
Speaking further, Edwin highlighted that the NUPRC recently convened a meeting with crude oil producers and refinery owners in Nigeria to ensure compliance with the Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligations (DCSO) as outlined in section 109(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He further noted that IOCs are either demanding exorbitant premiums or claiming that crude is unavailable.
“At one point, we had to pay $6 above the market price,” Edwin revealed. “This situation has compelled us to scale back our output and import crude from as far away as the US, which has substantially increased our production costs