The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) says it doesn’t make sense for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to sell petrol lifted from the Dangote Refinery higher than imported ones.
IPMAN National Welfare Officer John Kekeocha stated this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief breakfast programme yesterday.
“If NNPC can sell Dangote products higher than imported ones, it doesn’t make sense. What celebration are we having all these years?” he queried.
The NNPCL loaded the first batch of petrol from the Dangote Refinery on Sunday, saying it got N898 per litre from the private refinery.
Before lifting petrol from the Dangote Refinery on Sunday, NNPCL retail outlets in Lagos sold petrol for around N855, but they said a litre of Dangote petrol now sells for N950 per litre in Lagos and N1,019 in Borno.
However, Dangote Refinery denied selling petrol to the NNPCL at N898. In a statement late Sunday, spokesman Anthony Chiejina described the NNPCL’s claim as “misleading and mischievous.”
“It should also be noted that we sold the products to NNPCL in dollars with much savings against what they are currently importing. With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature,” Chiejina said.
NNPCL insisted that it got petrol from Dangote Refinery at N898 per litre and challenged the latter to release the price it sold petrol at. The NNPCL further released a breakdown of pricing it sells Dangote petrol at its filling stations nationwide.
Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20bn facility in Lagos, which can handle 350,000 barrels daily.
Initially bogged by regulatory battles, the refinery hopes to achieve its total capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery began supplying diesel and aviation fuel to country marketers and now supplies petrol.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges. All its state-owned refineries are non-operational. The country relies heavily on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Since removing the subsidy in May 2023, petrol prices have tripled from around ₦200/liter to over ₦1000/liter, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles and generate sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
