Marketers demand direct access as NNPC buys petrol at N766/litre from Dangote refinery

Marketers have demanded direct access to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from the Dangote refinery, criticising the firm grip of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on the market.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, said the market should be open for all in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller commitment earlier made by the corporation.

The NNPCL had last Saturday said it was not the sole off-taker of products from the Dangote refinery, adding that the refinery was free to sell its petrol to any marketer.

But a week after the statement, the Federal Government announced that the company would be the sole buyer of petrol from the refinery.

At a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, noted that interested marketers would have to buy the product from the national oil firm through its trading company.

The minister, represented by the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr Zacceus Adedeji, also announced that the Dangote refinery would commence the distribution of petrol to marketers on Sunday with an initial 25 million litres per day.

He said, “I am glad to announce that all agreements have been put in place, and the loading of the first batch of PMS, as already announced by NNPC, will commence on Sunday, September 15, 2024. And from October 1, NNPC will commence the supply of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid in naira.

“In return, Dangote refinery will supply PMS and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market to be paid in naira. But for now, PMS will only be sold to NNPC. NNPC will then sell to various marketer.”

Reacting, Ukadike said the market should be liberalised.“It should be open for all in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller comments made by the NNPC. We are also looking at how to build our logistics and come up with our price,” he stated.

Also, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, raised concerns over the risks of creating a new domestic monopoly in the oil and gas sector.

Gillis-Harry said, “Right now, even on Saturday, that business (petrol) is going to start rolling out tomorrow (Sunday), we don’t know what the price might be. Nobody has informed us about anything; we are not aware of what the government is doing.

“We don’t know any of the pricing templates yet or the matrix that will bring about the pricing template. We have been asking Dangote or anybody that is in charge of this transaction to be transparent, but somehow, we have not got any of that information.

“We are about to leave NNPC monopoly from importation and now we are also going to have that in a domestic environment, that portends danger for the industry.”