Dangote Refinery has disclosed its petrol prices following claims by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) that they are importing petroleum products at cheaper rates compared to Dangote.
In a statement released on Sunday night, signed by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, the refinery stated that its petroleum products are sold into trucks at N990 per litre and into ships at N960 per litre. The refinery emphasized that it follows the pricing benchmark set by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and even goes lower when selling into ships.
The disclosure comes after an IPMAN official, in an interview with Arise News, claimed that oil marketers are buying at cheaper rates abroad and called on Dangote Refinery to engage stakeholders.
However, Dangote Refinery has raised concerns about the quality of the allegedly cheaper imported products. The statement noted that an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery with the objective of blending substandard products to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production. The refinery warned that this practice is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria.
The statement further pointed out that those claiming to be buying at cheaper rates compared to Dangote Refinery 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. The refinery also highlighted that the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), lacks laboratory facilities to detect substandard products when imported into the country.
Dangote Refinery emphasized that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries to provide jobs and grow the economy, citing examples of the US and Europe imposing high tariffs on electric vehicles and microchips to protect their domestic industries.