Dangote Refinery has announced its current fuel pricing strategy, revealing that it sells petrol at N960 per litre for ships and N990 per litre for trucks.
This pricing comes in the wake of claims made by fuel associations IPMAN and PETROAN, which alleged they can import petrol at lower rates.
In a statement made available to Dockaysworld on Sunday night, Dangote revealed that its prices are competitive when benchmarked against international market rates.
The refinery expressed concerns that if other entities claim to offer petrol at cheaper prices, they may be importing low-quality fuel that could pose risks to public health and vehicle longevity.
Furthermore, Dangote criticized the National Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for lacking the laboratory facilities needed to properly test the quality of imported fuels.
The statement read in part,;
“Both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery. We benchmark our prices against international prices and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.
“If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low-quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles. Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.
“Post deregulation, NNPC set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks.
“In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased.”
The refinery’s reiterated its commitment to quality and stood by decision to sell petrol at lower rates than those set by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which had established prices of N971 per liter for ships.
By starting at N960, Dangote aims to provide affordable fuel options for consumers while maintaining high quality.
Dangote also raised alarm over an international trading company setting up a facility near its refinery, suggesting that the company plans to blend substandard products to compete with Dangote’s higher-quality offerings.
This move, according to Dangote, threatens the growth of Nigeria’s domestic refining industry.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, to use it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production.
“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries to provide jobs and grow the economy. For example, the US and Europe have had to impose high tariffs on EVs and microchips to protect their domestic industries.”
