By Ogaga Ariemu

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ikenga Ugochinyere, has alleged that Nigerian crude is being sold to Dangote Refinery and others through middlemen based in London, United Kingdom, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He made the claim during a press briefing on Thursday, where he raised an alarm that the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery may be hit with a crude supply shortage.

According to him, Dangote Refinery pays an extra $18 for every $100 barrel of Nigerian crude it buys through intermediaries.

He noted that the country would soon face fuel and diesel scarcity if nothing is being done to address crude supply constraints to the $20 billion worth of Dangote Refinery.

“Crude oil produced in Nigeria is being sold to our refineries through middlemen based in London and Dubai, who add no value but collect huge fees.

“For every barrel priced at $100, refineries pay $118, with the additional $18 going to intermediaries,” Ugochineyere alleged.

His comments come as Nigerian and global economies face a crude oil price spike due to the conflict between US-Israel and Iran.

The war took a different dimension this week with intensified attacks on oil infrastructures in the Gulf region, coupled with the already existing blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Thursday Iran bombed the Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery in Kuwait after doing the same the previous day at the Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas facility in the neighboring Gulf state, Qatar.

Iran’s attack came after Israel launched coordinated strikes at its South Pars offshore natural gas field.

The war in the Middle East had led crude oil prices to jump to $110 per barrel for Brent and $96.78 for West Texas Intermediate, respectively, as of Friday morning.

DAILY POST reports that the ripple effect of the Iran-US-Israel war is over 40 percent rise in domestic fuel prices in Nigeria. Dangote Refinery currently sells its petrol for N1,175 per liter, while fuel retail prices go for between N1,261 per liter and N1,320 in Abuja as of Friday.