Marketers are urging direct access to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from the Dangote refinery, expressing concerns over the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s dominance in the market.
Chinedu Ukadike, National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, called for an open market in line with the earlier “willing-buyer, willing-seller” arrangement.
Although the NNPCL recently stated it was not the exclusive buyer from the Dangote refinery and that marketers could purchase directly, the Federal Government later announced that the corporation would be the sole buyer of petrol from the refinery.
At a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, stated that marketers would need to purchase the product from the national oil corporation via its trading subsidiary.
Represented by the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr. Zaccheus Adedeji, the minister also announced that the Dangote refinery would begin distributing petrol to marketers on Sunday, starting with an initial supply of 25 million litres per day.
He said, “I am glad to announce that all agreements have been put in place, and the loading of the first batch of PMS, as already announced by NNPC, will commence on Sunday, September 15, 2024. And from October 1, NNPC will commence the supply of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid in naira.
“In return, Dangote refinery will supply PMS and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market to be paid in naira. But for now, PMS will only be sold to NNPC. NNPC will then sell to various marketers.”
Reacting, Ukadike said the market should be liberalised.
“It should be open for all in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller comments made by the NNPC. We are also looking at how to build our logistics and come up with our price,” he stated.
Also, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, raised concerns over the risks of creating a new domestic monopoly in the oil and gas sector.
Gillis-Harry said, “Right now, even on Saturday, that business (petrol) is going to start rolling out tomorrow (Sunday), we don’t know what the price might be. Nobody has informed us about anything; we are not aware of what the government is doing.
“We don’t know any of the pricing templates yet or the matrix that will bring about the pricing template. We have been asking Dangote or anybody that is in charge of this transaction to be transparent, but somehow, we have not got any of that information.
“We are about to leave NNPC monopoly from importation and now we are also going to have that in a domestic environment, that portends danger for the industry.”
Waffi TV has learned that the Dangote refinery will sell its petrol to the NNPC at a price of N766 per litre.
Several sources from the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPC, and major energy marketers confirmed that the decision to supply crude to the Dangote refinery in naira played a significant role in determining the PMS price.
“What we are going to see based on the deal between NNPC and Dangote is similar to the DSDP (Direct Sale of crude oil and Direct Purchase of petroleum products) transactions that used to exist between NNPC and foreign refineries in the past.
“And this has really impacted positively on the price of petrol that Dangote is selling to NNPC, because the cost is around N766/litre. But I can’t tell how much NNPC is going to sell to marketers now,” a major marketer, who spoke to Sunday PUNCH in confidence due to lack of authorisation to comment on the matter, stated.
A senior aide to President Bola Tinubu, speaking anonymously, confirmed that the petrol would be sold at N766 per litre.
The PUNCH
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