Petrol: Dangote Refinery, NNPC Contradict Over Price

•We Bought A Litre From Dangote At N898

•NNPC Mischievous, Aims To Derail Progress  – Dangote Refinery

 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Dangote Refinery on Sunday, differed over the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, produced and pumped out on Sunday by Dangote Refinery.

While both firms bickering on the price of PMS dispensed by Dangote on Sunday, independent oil marketers say they are still awaiting the price of the commodity from the sole off-taker of the product – NNPC.

Although, NNPC said it bought the product from Dangote at N898/litre, major oil marketers noted that they got PMS from NNPC at the rate of N766/litre,

NNPC also said it was to load 16.8 million litres of petrol from the Dangote refinery on Sunday, in contrast to the 25 million litres that the refinery had announced earlier it would release to the national oil company on a daily basis.

According to the spokesperson of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, over 70 trucks of PMS departed the Dangote refinery on Sunday, which was the first day for the release of petrol from the plant to the domestic market.

The official loading of petrol from the 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery takes off on Sunday.

Soneye said, “We successfully loaded PMS today (Sunday) at the Dangote refinery.

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“The report stating that we (NNPC) purchased it at N1,300/litre is false. For this initial loading, the price was N898/litre. I can also confirm that we will receive 16.8 million litres. As of now, we have loaded over 70 trucks.”

But Dangote Group’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, denied the price quoted by NNPC, labelling the claim as “misleading and mischievous”.

He stated that it undermined the company’s recent milestone in addressing Nigeria’s long-standing energy crisis.

According to Chiejina, the statement from NNPC was aimed at derailing the progress achieved towards alleviating energy insufficiency and insecurity, which had plagued the country for decades.

In a statement on Sunday, the Dangote official said, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPC spokesperson, Mr Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898/litre to the NNPC.

“This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedevilled the economy in the past 50 years.

“We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and 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 Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.”

Chiejina further clarified that the current stock of crude sold to NNPC was procured in dollars, with significant savings compared to existing import prices.

“With this action, there will be petrol in every Local Government Area of the country regardless of their remote nature.

“We assure Nigerians of the availability of quality petroleum products and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country,” the statement added.