BREAKING: Dangote Breaks Silence On Crashing Petrol Prices Below N620 Per Litre—President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, spoke at Afreximbank Annual Meetings and AfriCaribbean Trade & Investment Forum in Nassau, Bahamas. Addressing journalists, Dangote recounted how his refinery brought down the price of diesel from 1,700 to N1,200.
He, however, noted that the impact of petrol may not be the same, Punch reports.
There were reports that petrol prices could drop as low as N300 per litre when the refinery begins the sale of petrol.
Responding to journalists’ questions on possible petrol price cut, Africa’s richest man said:
“The gasoline(petrol) price issue is majorly being handled by the government, but let me illustrate with diesel, which is widely used by industries and transporters.
“When we started, diesel was priced at N1,700 with a dollar exchanging at about N1,200. Within two weeks, we reduced the price to N1,000.
“This represents a more than 60% drop from N1,700 to N1,200, and even with the currency now at about N1,500 per dollar, the price remains below N1,200.
“This is a significant improvement, and diesel is now readily available, stopping our previous hand-to-mouth ways”
Meanwhile, Dangote told senior journalists in Lagos on Sunday that the crude supply challenge, which affected the supply of petrol from the refinery, was resolved last week after the federal government intervened.
The journalists were on a guided tour of the refinery, which is located at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.
Recently the Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) raised an alarm over attempts by international oil companies (IOCs) to frustrate efforts at purchasing crude for the refinery.
“While the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)are trying their best to allocate the crude for us, the IOCs are deliberately and willfully frustrating our efforts to buy the local crude,” the Vice President, Oil and Gas at DIL, Devakumar Edwin, told energy editors in June.
“It seems that the objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/humongous premium or, they simply state that crude is not available.
“At some point, we paid $6 over and above the market price. This has forced us to reduce our output as well as import crude from countries as far as the US, increasing our cost of production.”
Dangote confirmed the new production date to journalists at the facility in Lagos. says the refinery is now set to roll out its petrol from August 2024, having resolved its crude oil supply issues through the help of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the federal government.
Dangote said the date change was due to a slight delay. The marketers are reportedly registering as individual business owners and applying for a direct fuel supply from the refinery.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) disclosed that it would continue negotiations with the facility to obtain a bulk supply for its members, who may need more money to afford large petrol purchases
