Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE has Sued Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), Matrix Petroleum Services Limited, A. A. Rano Limited, and others in a Federal High Court in Abuja\u00a0askeding the court to void the import licenses issued to these companies\u00a0\u00a0for the purpose of importing refined petroleum products that are already being produced by Dangote without shortfalls.<\/p>\n
In suit number FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1324\/2024, Dangote Refinery is also seeking N100 billion in damages against the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for allegedly continuing to issue import licenses to NNPCL, Matrix Energy, and other companies for importing petroleum products such as Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Jet Fuel (aviation turbine fuel) into Nigeria,\u00a0\u201cdespite the production of AGO and Jet-A1 that exceeds the current daily consumption of petroleum products in Nigeria by the Dangote Refinery.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n Joining\u00a0as defendants in the case includes:\u00a0NMDPRA, NNPCL, Aym Shafa Limited, A. A. Rano Limited, T. Time Petroleum Limited, 2015 Petroleum Limited, and Matrix Petroleum Services Limited (1st to 7th defendants).<\/p>\n In its originating summons dated September 6, 2024, the plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, Ogwu James Onoja, SAN, asked the court to declare that NMDPRA is allegedly in violation of Sections 317(8) and (9) of the Petroleum Industry Act by issuing licenses for the importation of petroleum products.<\/p>\n He stated that such licenses should only be issued in circumstances where there is a petroleum product shortfall.<\/p>\n He also urged the court to declare that NMDPRA is in violation of its statutory responsibilities under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) for not encouraging local refineries such as Dangote Refinery.<\/p>\n In an affidavit deposed by Ahmed Hashem, the Group General Manager of Government and Strategic Relations at Dangote Refinery, he submitted that the import licenses granted to other companies by NMDPRA for the importation of AGO and Jet-A1 are crippling the plaintiff\u2019s business, to which it has committed substantial financial resources in billions of US dollars.<\/p>\n He noted that the plaintiff\u2019s products are largely left unpatronized due to the alleged actions of NMDPRA.<\/p>\n He stated that NMDPRA has threatened to impose and demand a 0.5% levy on the plaintiff on wholesales and off-takers, as well as another 0.5% levy on wholesales to the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF) via a letter dated June 10, 2024, contrary to statutory provisions that limit the implementation of levies on transactions within Free Zones.<\/p>\n He emphasized that the foundational purpose of establishing Free Zones is to foster competition, attract foreign investment, and create tax havens.<\/p>\n He further stated that there is an alleged grand conspiracy and concerted effort by International Oil Companies and interests, in conjunction with the defendants, who are unhappy that Nigeria has an indigenous refinery ready to solve the lingering energy crisis and save the economy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe intervention of the Honourable Court has become necessary in order to stem the incessant violation of statutory provisions by the 1st Defendant in favor of other entities such as the 2nd to 7th defendants,\u201d<\/i><\/em>\u00a0the plaintiff stated.<\/p>\n The refinery\u2019s legal team stated that the plaintiff is greatly distressed, and its investments risk being jeopardized unless the Honourable Court intervenes.<\/p>\n He sought an order of injunction restraining the 1st Defendant from further issuing and\/or renewing import licenses to the 2nd to 7th defendants or other companies for the purpose of importing petroleum products.<\/p>\n In addition to a restraining order against the import licenses of the affected companies, the plaintiff sought\u00a0\u201cGeneral damages in the sum of N100,000,000,000 against the 1st Defendant (NMDPRA) and an order of court directing the 1st Defendant to seal off all tank farms, storage facilities, warehouses, and stations used by the defendants for the storage of all refined petroleum products imported into Nigeria.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE has Sued Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), Matrix Petroleum Services Limited, A. A. Rano Limited, and others in a Federal High Court in Abuja\u00a0askeding the court to void the import licenses issued to these companies\u00a0\u00a0for the purpose of importing refined petroleum products that are already being produced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":28605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53038,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53035\/revisions\/53038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}