Petrol importers are actually promoting under the worth provided by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, reigniting issues over competitors and coverage route in Nigeria’s downstream oil sector.
According to findings on Wednesday, July 30, some gasoline stations in Lagos and Ogun States now dispense petrol at charges under ₦860 per litre.
In comparability, Dangote’s distributors, together with MRS and Heyden, keep pump costs between ₦865 and ₦875.
Depot information confirmed that whereas the Dangote refinery offered at ₦820 per litre, importers like Aiteo and Menj provided petrol at ₦815, primarily based on figures from Petroleumprice.ng.
The improvement follows complaints from importers who had beforehand incurred losses on account of worth reductions by the 650,000-barrels-per-day Dangote refinery. Now, they look like hanging again with aggressive pricing to remain afloat.
Chinedu Ukadike, National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, confirmed the worth shifts.
“Depot owners are dropping their petrol prices. Some of them are selling ₦815, some are selling ₦817, while Dangote is selling ₦820. NNPC is still selling at ₦825; it has not dropped its prices yet,” he disclosed.
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Ukadike defended the pattern as wholesome market dynamics. “This is the beauty of the liberalisation of the market. That is why we opined that the President should not ban anybody from importing petroleum products,” he said.
But Alhaji Aliko Dangote sees issues in another way. He warned that continued imports had been discouraging native refining.
“The Nigeria First policy announced by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, should apply to the petroleum product sector and all other sectors,” he mentioned.
He added, “And to make matters worse, we are now facing increased dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America.”
He additional claimed that gasoline from Russia, purchased at discounted charges, was hurting Nigeria’s refiners. “Due to the price caps on the Russian petroleum products, discounted petroleum products produced in Russia or with discounted Russian crude find their way to Africa, severely undercutting our local production,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, entrepreneurs rejected any notion of a ban, urging the federal government to permit market forces to function freely.
