The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) have released differing statements regarding the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, supplied from the refinery to the domestic market on Sunday.
While NNPC confirmed that it purchased petrol at ₦898 per litre from Dangote, the refinery disputed this claim, creating confusion around the price of the fuel. According to NNPC spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, over 16.8 million litres of petrol were loaded from the Dangote refinery on Sunday.
Soneye further stated that over 70 trucks left the refinery, marking the first official day of petrol supply from the plant. “We successfully loaded PMS today (Sunday) at the Dangote refinery. The report stating that we purchased it at ₦1,300/litre is false. For this initial loading, the price was ₦898/litre,” Soneye said.
Contradicting this, Dangote’s Chief Branding Officer, Anthony Chiejina, labelled NNPC’s statement as “misleading and mischievous,” accusing the company of attempting to undermine the progress made towards solving Nigeria’s energy crisis.
“This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency,” Chiejina stated.
He emphasized that the price of petrol has not yet been officially announced, urging Nigerians to disregard the NNPC’s figures until the government’s appointed Technical Sub-Committee provides the actual pricing on October 1, 2024.
The difference in pricing between the two major oil firms has left independent marketers uncertain about the exact cost.
Abubakar Maigandi, President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said, “We are hearing of different prices, but we have not heard from NNPC directly on the amount that they would want to sell the product to us.”
Meanwhile, some major oil marketers disclosed that they received petrol from NNPC at ₦766/litre. These marketers include notable names such as Conoil, NIPCO, Total, and Mobil. An anonymous marketer explained that NNPC buys from Dangote at ₦898 per litre and resells to marketers at ₦766 per litre.
NNPC’s Vice President of Downstream, Dapo Segun, said that market forces will ultimately determine the price of petrol. “The cost of petrol would be determined by market forces. NNPC is not a regulator. NNPC has no regulatory powers. We can’t say NNPC sets the price. The government is not involved,” he stated in a video.
The Dangote refinery, which boasts a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, is expected to help end Nigeria’s long-standing fuel scarcity issues. Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, expressed confidence that the refinery would be able to meet all of Nigeria’s petrol needs and still have enough surplus for export.
“We can meet all the requirements of Nigeria and have a huge surplus to export. This is a huge moment of pride for every Nigerian,” Edwin said. He also mentioned plans to increase the daily output of PMS from 25 million litres to 30 million litres in the coming month.
