Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524716
4 NEWS 4 MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 31 JULY 2024 KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt 'Ras Hanzir' refinery claims untrue, says company in Nigerian fuel crisis AN oil company caught up in a political storm in Nigeria has denied owning an alleged refin- ery in Malta, insisting in a com- pany statement that no such facility or its holding company exists. Nigeria's richest man, Aliko Dangote, owner of the Dangote refinery, alleged that government officials on the board of Nigeria's national petroleum company had shares in Maltese blending plants. The claim was that this im- port-dependency on petroleum stored through the oil tanks at Ras Ħanżir, which is owned by the Maltese government's fuel company Enemed, raised prices for Nigerians. In the process, another Nigeri- an company, Oando plc, issued a statement to deny claims that its own principals were share- holders of a fictitious company called Ras Hanzir Oil Terminal Ltd. Oando said it had requested "a comprehensive investiga- tion" with a search of the Mal- tese business registry, showing no results for such a company. "Subsequent due diligence ef- forts similarly failed to uncov- er any record of the company's existence. We believe that the false claims are of the malicious intent of misleading the public and our stakeholders." In 2023, Nigeria experience a unique spike in imports of €2.25 billion worth of blended fuel imported from Malta, which holds oil tanks at the Ras Ħanżir facility to store imported fuel. Dangote is at loggerheads with the Nigerian petroleum regula- tor NNPC over his refinery's ac- cess to Nigeria's crude oil, after the regulator cast doubt over the quality of his diesel, citing higher sulphur content that imported fuels. Background to claims Nigeria is Africa's largest pro- ducer of crude oil, and the world's 15th biggest, but none of its exist- ing government-owned refineries are operational. Dangote built the $20 billion privately-owned refinery after making his fortune in cement and sugar. For decades Nigerians enjoyed subsidised petrol prices. But last year incoming President Bola Tinubu stopped the subsidies due to their unsustainability, leading to a rise in prices surg- ing by as much as four-fold. In 2024, shortages of petrol led to queues outside petrol sta- tions, and the state-owned NN- PC warned against people pan- ic-buying. The Dangote refinery could solve Nigeria's longstanding logistics problem by producing 650,000 barrels of fuel per day once fully operational, exceeding the country's 480,000 barrels per day usage and exporting the surplus. Dangote is sourcing crude imports from the USA, but the regulator has reduced a 20% stake in the refinery to 7.2%, ostensibly an attempt to weak- en the company's market dom- inance. As the impasse dragged on, Dangote alleged that "some of the NNPC people and some traders have opened blending plants somewhere off Malta. We all know these areas. We know what they are doing." The NNPC chief executive officer Mele Kyrai denied the allegation. "I am inundated by enquiries from family mem- bers, friends, and associates on the public declaration by the president of Dangote Group that some NNPC workers have established a blending plant in Malta, thereby impeding pro- curements from local produc- tion of petroleum products. "To clarify the allegations re- garding the blending plant, I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world except for a local mini-agric venture, neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or any- where else in the world." Nigeria's richest man alleges government officials own Malta refinery, after Nigerian regulator reduces shareholding in his refinery Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote is reputed to be Nigeria's richest man HALF-YEARLY public finance ac- counts show that the government deficit stood at €684 million in June, marking an improvement over last year's situation. Public finance accounts pub- lished in the Government Gazette show that at the same juncture last year, the deficit stood at a whop- ping €1.1 billion. These figures show that there has been an improvement of more than €400 million in the deficit at the half way mark. However, the improvement came on the back of higher borrowings. The government is estimating it will need to borrow €1.7 billion by the end of 2024 with €471 million already taken out by June. These figures show that at the halfway mark, the government borrowed around €120 million more than it did last year at the same juncture. The accounts show that total revenue in the first six months of 2024 stood at €3.9 billion. The government is estimating govern- ment revenue to reach €8.5 billion by the end of the year. However, the accounts show that the country started the year with a negative balance of €790 million. Expenditure at the end of June stood at €3.8 billion, which equates to around 45% of the total expend- iture of €8.5 billion the govern- ment is estimating by year's end. Taking into account the negative balance at the start of the year, revenue earned and expenditure, the country had a deficit of €684 million in June. Deficit in June stood at €684 million