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Dangote Industries Limited, on Saturday, denied selling Premium Motor Spirit to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited at an inflated price of N898 per liter. The company, in a statement signed by its management urged NNPC to retract the statement credited to its Spokesperson Olufemi Soyene, who reportedly insinuated that Dangote Refinery sold the product to the national oil firm at that price.
Dangote Industries, in its statement, described the claims made by Soyene as misleading and calculated to demean the great works the Dangote Refinery has been doing toward addressing seemingly intractable energy problems that have faced Nigeria for a very long time. It explained that it had sold PMS to NNPC at a price far lower than the current market import prices and offered the product in dollars, translating into saving tons of money for the NNPC.
In a statement signed by Anthony Chiejine, Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Dangote Industries, the refinery described this as part of its mandate to reassure Nigerians of its readiness to satisfy the petroleum needs of the country. It repeated its declaration that when operational, the perennial fuel crisis in the country would cease to exist.
Dangote explained that the actual price for petroleum products would be determined and announced by a Technical Subcommittee appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu. The committee was expected to present its findings and official price structure on 1st October 2024. Until then, any speculation about the pricing strategy for the refinery remains misleading.
The statement further explained that Dangote Refinery began its supply of petrol to NNPC this Sunday, 15th September 2024, with over 300 trucks currently positioned at the refinery for effective distribution across the country. This development is viewed as a major step in an effort toward solving Nigeria’s fuel crisis, which has caused scarcity and long queues in all petrol stations for more than six weeks.
While NNPC has kept official pump prices low, many consumers have been forced to pay a much higher price at the filling stations, a development that has raised skepticism over possible cases of extortion of price. Industry watchers said these challenges would reduce as lifting of products from Dangote Refinery will shore up products supply, hence cushioning any government move to adjust prices upwards to maintain stability in pricing.
In this direction, it has emerged that Dangote Industries remains irrevocably committed to reasonably priced superior petroleum products which could ease the energy crisis in Nigeria and bring an end to the persistent fuel scarcity.
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