NNPCL, Dangote lock horns as price reduction hope fades

The prevailing confusion in the petroleum sector worsened on Sunday, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Dangote Refinery engaged in a war of words on the pricing template.

This comes as Dangote Refinery on Sunday commenced petrol distribution.

NNPCL was the inaugural off-taker of Dangote Refinery’s Petrol.

Minister of Finance, Wale Edun who visited the refinery on Sunday said the facility would ensure energy security in Nigeria.

On the pricing, Edun said as Dangote Refinery and other refineries scale up production, it may impact pricing.

Recall that NNPCL had earlier confirmed that its trucks have started loading Dangote Petrol.

The company said 16.8 million liters of PMS had been loaded from Dangote at N898 per liter price. This was where the problem started.

Dangote Group, in a statement by its spokesperson, Anthony Chiejina, described NNPLC’s N898 per liter price statement as misleading and mischievous.

The company said NNPCL’s lifting of its petrol was part of the crude oil sale in Naira deal with the Nigerian government

Dangote Refinery said Nigerians should “Await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars”.

However, Dangote was unclear on the exact price it sold petrol to NNPCL at this initial stage.

Reacting to Dangote’s statement on pricing, NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye insisted that the company sold petrol to it at N989 per litre

We stand by our earlier statement that Dangote Refinery petrol is sold to us at N898 per liter.