The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has clarified its ex-depot pricing for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), setting it at N990 per litre for sales into trucks and N960 per litre for ships.
This clarification, issued in a statement on Sunday, comes amid ongoing discussions with oil marketers concerning the refinery’s pricing structure.
Despite maintaining an inventory of over 500 million litres of petrol, the Dangote refinery has noted that retailers are not purchasing the product, which has contributed to the persistence of fuel queues across Nigeria and financial losses for the refinery.
In response, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) stated that its members have faced challenges loading petrol from the Dangote refinery, finding it more costly compared to other depots.
Yakubu Suleiman, IPMAN’s national assistant secretary, expressed that members are seeking more affordable sources elsewhere due to the high logistical expenses tied to procuring petrol directly from Dangote’s facility.
The refinery explained that its pricing strategy is influenced by the rates set by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, which has been selling petrol to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sales into ships and N990 per litre for sales into trucks.
“Post-deregulation, NNPC set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing, and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks,” the refinery stated.
“In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased.”