The leadership of Nigeria’s House of Representatives today, Saturday, July 20, visited the Dangote Petroleum Refinery located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.

Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, led the lawmakers who arrived at the refinery at about 11am.

President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and top executives of the refineries were on ground to receive the visitors.

Expectedly, the lawmakers will take a tour of the 650,000 barrels per day refinery during the visit and also have discussions with the management of the refinery pertaining to the alleged attempts by international oil companies (IOCs) to frustrate its access to crude oil needed for production.

The House of Representatives on Thursday, commenced investigation into the allegation, following a matter of urgent national importance raised by the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda.

The lawmakers expressed concerns that there could be an ongoing manipulation of the price of local crude, preventing the Dangote refinery from buying locally, thereby affecting the cost of the refined product.

Also, the green chamber said it would investigate the actual percentage of the Federal Government’s shares in Dangote refinery.

Last week, Dangote revealed that Nigeria, through NNPCL owns 7.3 per cent stake in the refinery, as against the 20 per cent shares claim because the Federal Government was unable to meet its own obligations.

Also, the refinery’s management, again on Wednesday, raised the alarm that the IOCs are frustrating its refinery operations as they insisted on selling crude oil to its refinery through their foreign agents.

Consequently, the company noted that the local price of crude would continue to increase because the trading arms offer cargoes at $2 to $4 per barrel, above NUPRC official price.