—- Says the Union has no legal authority to interfere in supply contracts between the refinery and its vendors
Dangote Petroleum Refinery has warned that the recent directives issued by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ( PENGASSAN) to cut oil and gas supplies to the refinery could plunge Nigerians into fresh rounds of fuel scarcity while inflicting huge revenue losses on the government.
In a statement released on Saturday, 27 September 2025, the refinery described the directives as criminal, reckless, and act of economic sabotage that, if enforced, would disrupt the production and supply of critical Petroleum products including petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene, and cooking gas.
The Company stressed that these products are indispensable to daily life and the economy, warning that Nigerians at every level, from households to businesses and industries would bear the brunt of shortages. it noted that a sudden disruption in supply will translate into insufferable hardship for millions of Nigerians.
“The product that would be disrupted and stopped include but are not limited to aviation fuel, petrol, kerosene, diesel and cooking gas – all products that are used and required by all stripes of Nigerians and persons living in Nigeria; whether high and mighty or low and ordinary. In what circumstance would it justified for PENGASSAN to so disrupt and introduce insufferable hardship into living conditions of Nigerians? None that we can see,” the Company said.
The following questions is in whose interest and whose behalf is PENGASSAN directing and intending to inflict such anarchic and criminal disruption upon Nigerian society and persons living in Nigeria? Most certainly not in the interest of Nigeria State and/ or the Nigerian public and citizens.
Beyond the immediate hardship on citizens, Dangote Refinery warned that the government’s revenue would also be dented, given the refinery’s status as one of the country’s largest tax payers and contributors to both the Federal and State coffers. The Company said any pause in operations would stall contributions to the national purse and undermine investors confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
The statement noted, “This is also economic sabotage against the Nigerian State at multiple levels. Dangote Refinery is the only refinery of its type in Africa and ordinary should be the pride of all Nigeria. It should ordinarily have special protection and status and indeed qualifies as a strategic normal asset.
It added that an irreparable injury to the Dangote Refinery such as PENGASSAN has directed constitutes a national embarrassment to the country and disincentive to external investors who ordinarily would have been encouraged by success of Dangote Refinery to comtemplate investing in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector or generally.
“PENGASSAN may not also be aware that Dangote Refinery is one of the largest contributors to the revenue purse of the Nigerian governments both federal and sub – national. That contributions is currently threatens by PENGASSAN and would of course be paused if and soon as for as long as the PENGASSAN directive implemented by its branches,” it noted.
The statement also noted that PENGASSAN had no legal authority to interfere in supply contracts between the refinery and its vendors, insisting that the action undermined the rule of law.
