NNPCL and Dangote Refinery Clash Over Petrol Pricing
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Dangote Refinery are embroiled in a dispute over the pricing of petrol supplied by the refinery. This disagreement surfaced as NNPCL received its first batch of petrol from Dangote Refinery.
Olufemi Soneye, NNPCL’s Chief Spokesperson, stated that the refinery charged N898 per litre for the premium motor spirit (PMS), contrary to reports of N760 per litre. “We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote Refinery today. The claim that we purchased it at N760 per litre is incorrect. For this initial loading, the price from the refinery was N898 per litre,” Soneye said.
However, Dangote Refinery contested NNPCL’s pricing assertion. They argued that the **N898 per litre rate was due to the cost of importing crude oil for refining, aligning with the dollar exchange rate. Anthony Chiejina, Dangote’s Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, criticized NNPCL’s claim, calling it “misleading and mischievous.”
Dangote Refinery urged Nigerians to disregard NNPCL’s statement and await the official pricing announcement from the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales, scheduled for October 1, 2024. They explained that selling petrol in dollars resulted in significant savings compared to current import prices, which would help provide petrol to even the country’s most remote areas and address long-standing fuel scarcity issues.
Chiejina emphasized, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898 per litre to the NNPCL. This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedevilled the economy in the past 50 years.”
He added, “We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal announcement on the pricing by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.”
Chiejina assured Nigerians of the availability of quality petroleum products and an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country. “With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature,” he said.
