The Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, has revealed that petroleum product marketers in Nigeria have raised concerns with President Bola Tinubu, claiming that Dangote Refinery’s diesel price, which has dropped to N900 per litre, is negatively affecting their businesses.
Speaking during a Twitter Spaces session organized by Nairametrics, Edwin explained that Dangote Refinery has consistently reduced the price of diesel, from N1,200 to N1,000, and now to N900 per litre.
However, this price reduction has led to decreased revenue for petroleum marketers, prompting their complaints to the president.
“Petroleum product marketers in Nigeria have written to President Bola Tinubu to complain that the refinery local prices, which have dropped from N1,200 to N1,000 and now N900 per litre, are impacting their businesses negatively,” Edwin stated.
Despite the price cuts, the refinery struggles to sell about 29 tankers of diesel daily due to low patronage from local marketers.
Edwin noted that this has forced the refinery to export most of its diesel and aviation fuel products to maintain operations.
“As a result of this poor local patronage, the refinery exports most of its diesel and aviation fuel,” he said.
Edwin also highlighted the challenges facing the refinery’s operations, including difficulty in securing crude oil supplies locally, forcing the company to import crude from countries like the United States and Brazil.
He explained that this situation contradicts the refinery’s original goal of refining Nigerian crude locally.
“What is happening today? We are struggling to get the crude. We are now importing the crude from the US, we are importing from Brazil, and from other parts of the world. So, the whole philosophy has gone upside down,” he said.
Despite these setbacks, Edwin announced that the refinery has started producing Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and remains committed to refining crude locally to add value and benefit the Nigerian economy.