The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, gave divergent views over the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, produced and pumped out on Sunday by Dangote Refinery.
While both oil firms have different accounts of 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.
This came as the major oil marketers told one of our correspondents that they got PMS from NNPC at the rate of N766/litre, while NNPC said it bought the product from Dangote at N898/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.
The spokesperson of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, confirmed that 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.
It was also gathered from the national oil company that over 48 million litres of crude oil had been supplied and scheduled for supply to the $20bn Lekki-based refinery by NNPC from December 2023 to October 2024.
NNPC officially commenced the loading of petrol from the 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Sunday.
In a WhatsApp message to one of our correspondents confirming this and providing insight on the cost of the petrol from the Lagos-based refinery, Soneye said, “We successfully loaded PMS today (Sunday) at the Dangote refinery.
“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.”
However, Dangote refinery denied the price with Anthony Chiejina, Dangote Group’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, labelling the claim as “misleading and mischievous,” stating 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.”
“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.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
