Petrol Supply: NNPCL, Dangote lock horns as price reduction hope fades

The prevailing confusion in the petroleum sector worsened on Sunday, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Dangote Refinery engaged in a war of words on the pricing template.

This comes as Dangote Refinery on Sunday commenced petrol distribution.

NNPCL was the inaugural off-taker of Dangote Refinery’s Petrol.

Minister of Finance, Wale Edun who visited the refinery on Sunday said the facility would ensure energy security in Nigeria.

On the pricing, Edun said as Dangote Refinery and other refineries scale up production, it may impact pricing.

Recall that NNPCL had earlier confirmed that its trucks have started loading Dangote Petrol.

The company said 16.8 million liters of PMS had been loaded from Dangote at N898 per liter price. This was where the problem started.

Dangote Group, in a statement by its spokesperson, Anthony Chiejina, described NNPLC’s N898 per liter price statement as misleading and mischievous.

The company said NNPCL’s lifting of its petrol was part of the crude oil sale in Naira deal with the Nigerian government.

Dangote Refinery said Nigerians should “Await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars”.

However, Dangote was unclear on the exact price it sold petrol to NNPCL at this initial stage.

Reacting to Dangote’s statement on pricing, NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye insisted that the company sold petrol to it at N989 per litre.

“We stand by our earlier statement that Dangote Refinery petrol is sold to us at N898 per liter. “We have documents to back this point.”

The development has left Nigerians more perplexed regarding the country’s energy security.

This is as Petroleum Marketers earlier expressed worries over the opaqueness regarding Dangote Refinery’s petrol pricing.

The President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry said, “We cannot be dealing with business clandestinely. Let the industry know what is going on”.

Similarly, the president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi said that the price of Dangote Refinery is unclear for now.

“We are sure that the product will be available. The price for now we are not sure what it will look like”.

Dangote Refinery’s Petrol price N28 more expensive than NNPCL’s fuel

A comparative analysis of Dangote Petrol indicated that it is more expensive than Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s imported fuel, which stood at N870 per liter.

Earlier, petroleum marketers confirmed that the average price NNPCL sold petrol to them stood at N870 per liter depending on the location.

The President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria confirmed that the average price of petrol from NNPCL stood at N870 per liter.

“We already have petrol at N870 per liter price from NNPCL,” Gillis-Harry told DAILY POST.

Amid the confusion surrounding Dangote Refinery Petrol pricing, Channels Television’s Data Analyst, Babajide Ogunsanwo said the development would be a headache to Dangote Refinery, NNPCL, Nigerians and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

“The evidence we have is that the price from Dangote Refinery is N898 per liter, the same product NNPCL imports at N840.

“So clearly, Aliko Dangote will have some headaches.

“The citizens will have some headaches because the price of petrol is not about to go down,” he said.