Breaking: At last, Dangote reveals price of its petrol, faults IPMAN, PETROAN
Dangote Industries Limited on Sunday finally released the price of petrol from its refinery, thereby disproving the claims by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN and PETROAN that they could import fuel at a cheaper rate than what Dangote refinery is currently offering.
According to a statement released by Anthony Chiejina, Dangote’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, petrol from its refinery is sold to trucks at the rate of ₦990 per litre, while it is sold to ships at the rate of ₦960 per litre.
It argued that if IPMAN and PETROAN are importing cheaper than their price, it means that the products are substandard.
“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,” Dangote said.The refiner said it was unfortunate that the regulator, NMDPRA, does not have laboratory facilities which could be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country,” the statement read.
“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.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production.”
Dangote said this is discouraging to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria, noting that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy.
“While we continue with our determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum product in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty,” the company added.
