*Finally discloses it sells to bulk buyers at between N960-N990
*Accuses NMDPRA of lacking facilities to test quality of fuels
*Says foreign firm setting up plant in Lagos to dump inferior products on Nigeria
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The management of the Dangote Refinery yesterday maintained that any imported petrol cheaper than the one produced by the 650,000 barrels per day facility, located in Lagos, is substandard.
In a statement signed by the company’s Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, the Dangote refinery stated that it was also possible that the oil marketers who are pushing the narrative that products refined outside Nigeria are cheaper, are conniving with international traders to turn the country into a dumping ground for low quality products.
Specifically, the company stated that it had lately refrained from engaging in media fights, but was now constrained to respond to what it described as the recent ‘misinformation’ being circulated by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), among others.
Some oil marketers had at the weekend revealed that the price of petrol, produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was between N1,015 and N1,028/litre depending on the quantity being purchased, higher than imported fuel.
The oil dealers therefore vowed to import the commodity and sell it below the Dangote refinery price as well as the price being sold by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
But the statement said that both organisations claimed that they can import petrol at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery, explaining that it benchmarked its prices against international prices and believes its prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.
“If anyone claims they can land Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.
“Unfortunately, the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country,” the Dangote refinery asserted.
Post deregulation, the Dangote refinery said that the 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, it stressed, set the benchmark for its pricing from where it has gone even lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks.
In good faith, and in the interest of the country, it stated that it commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that it will use to pay for the crude purchased.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production.
“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy.
“For example, the US and Europe have had to impose high tariffs on Electronic Vehicles (EVs) and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.
“While we continue with our determination to provide of affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum product in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty,” the statement added.
