Dangote Refinery has admitted receiving millions of barrels of crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and thanked the Nigerian major oil supplier for supporting the indigenous oil plant.

Aliyu Suleiman, group chief strategy officer of the Dangote refinery, on Wednesday, disclosed that the oil facility presently has 50 million barrels of crude in stock and that the lion 60 per cent of that amount was from NNPC.

“Right now, as I said we bought about 50 million barrels of crude, about 60 per cent of that came from NNPC and we are thankful to them for their support and we hope to continue to get this support,” Mr Suleiman said while speaking with the Senate committee investigating allegations of sabotage in the nation’s petroleum sector on Wednesday.

“About 20 per cent had to be imported from outside (the country) and then 20 per cent we purchased,” the Dangote Refinery top staff stated.

He reaffirmed the refinery’s willingness to “pay fair prices” for the crude, asserting that the oil plant will not engage in any back-and-forth negotiations with the NNPC.

“Essentially, what we are asking for is crude and let’s be very clear, we are happy to pay fair prices. We don’t complain. We don’t haggle with NNPC. We are very happy with the price, the set price.”

The disclosure came weeks after Farouk Ahmed, chief of Nigeria’s oil regulator, NMDPRA, alleged that Dangote Refinery wanted to monopolise the oil sector. Aliko Dangote vehemently denied the claim and also shelved his plan to construct a steel plant as the.

President Akinwunmi Adesina of African Development Bank rebuked the NMDPRA chief and implicitly urged the President Bola Tinubu administration to forego pettiness and create an enabling environment for Dangote Refinery to thrive.

Mr Tinubu waded into the matter and directed NNPC to supply crude oil to the refinery to the relief of Dangote Group.