Dangote Refinery will on Sunday, September 15, 2024, commence sales of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly called petrol.
According to Businessday, which quoted inside sources, marketers are expected to start sending their trucks to the refinery today (Friday) to facilitate the lifting process without hitches.
With the introduction of the Dangote PMS, Nigeria would depend less on imported fuel supply and ameliorate the challenges consumers die from insufficient supplies resulting in grueling fuel scarcity.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is to supply an initial daily allocation of 25 million litres of crude to Dangote Refinery but regardless of the PMS may not translate to immediate reduction in the price of petrol.
However, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has refuted reports that it planned to boycott PMS from Dangote Refinery, saying it had no reason not to buy from the company, if the price is lower than what is currently available to them.
According to Abubakar Maigandi, the IPMAN president: “NNPCL, you know they are the sole importer, the company sells to us at an average price of N875 per litre.
“For the NNPCL product, we sell at N930 or N940 depending on how the product was obtained. While at the depot, we buy at N990 per liter. We are marketers, anywhere we can get it at a lower rate, we will go there.
“In the letter to us, Dangote said the PMS is ready. The price was not stated.
“We can’t boycott Dangote Refinery; if Dangote Refinery’s petrol is cheaper, how can marketers boycott the product?
“We don’t have any issue with Dangote Refinery.”
Maigandi’s statement was apparently in response to comments by Edwin Devakumar, the Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, who claimed during an X space session organised by Nairametrics,that local petroleum marketers planned to boycott Dangote Refinery’s petrol despite offering lower prices.
Devakumar also said only three percent of local petroleum marketers were interested in buying its recently rolled-out petrol.
However, Maigandi insisted on the readiness of IPMAN members to buy Dangote PMS, adding that there is no reason not to patronise the firm, as long as the price is right.
Nigerians are upbeat as they look forward to welcoming the Dangote PMS on Sunday, hoping that at last, reprieve may have come to them the Dangote Refinery.
