Our ex-depot petrol price is N990/litre for trucks, says Dangote refinery

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery says it set its ex-depot price of petrol at N990 per litre for sale into trucks, and N960 for ships.

The refinery spoke in a statement on Sunday, addressing debates between oil marketers bordering the product’s price.

The Dangote refinery had said despite having over 500 million litres of petrol available for sale, retailers are not buying the products to ease petrol queues, resulting in financial losses for the company.

Replying the refinery, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said its members were unable to load petrol from the Dangote refinery for days.

The association later said it is more expensive to buy petrol from the refinery than other places.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme, Yakubu Suleiman, national assistant secretary of IPMAN, members go for more affordable options at other depots across Nigeria than the high logistical costs associated with buying petrol from the Dangote refinery.

Addressing the issue on Sunday, the company said it benchmarked its price on the amount the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited sold to domestic marketers.

“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,” the refinery said.

“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.”