BREAKING: Our Petrol Is Cheaper Than Imported Ones Says Dangote [SEE PRICE LIST]—Dangote Petroleum Refinery has reacted to The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) allegation that its more expensive to buy Dangote’s premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the than other places.
The Genius Media Nigeria reports that this is coming after Yakubu Suleiman, national assistant secretary of IPMAN made this disclosure on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme on Friday saying that Suleiman said members go for more affordable options at other depots across Nigeria than the high logistical costs associated with buying petrol from the Dangote refinery.
He said: “If Dangote has a product selling for N1,000, let’s assume, and there’s another place selling for N900, we can’t just say, for the sake of our relationship with Dangote, that we’ll instruct our members to buy there. We must go where the price is lower, where we’ll get profit,” he said.
“As of last week, Dangote’s price was higher than other places.
“Crude prices are coming down internationally, but Dangote’s rate was N995 per litre, and you have to arrange for your cargo and loading. With additional costs for transport and depot fees, how can we sell it at the final outlet?
In a statement made available to The Genius Media Nigeria on Sunday night, Dangote revealed that its prices are competitive when benchmarked against international market rates.
Responding on Sunday through a statement signed by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications stated that only low quality petroleum products that will be harmful to both human and vehicle engines can be imported by the analysis presented by both IPMAN and PETROAN.
The statement reads in full:
We had lately refrained from engaging in media fights but we are constrained to respond to the recent misinformation being circulated by IPMAN, PETROAN, and other associations.
Both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery.
We benchmark our prices against international prices and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.
If anyone claims they can land 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 (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.
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.
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.
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 EVs and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.
While we continue with our determination to provide 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
