Trending Now: Dangote Refinary Berates IPMAN, PETROAN On Prices Of Petrol, Pledges Affordable Petroleum Products
Dangote Refinary has accused the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN of 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.
In a late night press release on Sunday by the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, alleged that both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery.
According to the statement, “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”
The statement emphasizes that Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA as a regulator, does not have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.
It notes that NNPCL had earlier set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks, the development set the benchmark for its own pricing, and it has 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 pledging its determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum product in Nigeria, it calls on the public to disregard what it termed to be deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for the country to continue to export jobs and import poverty.
