Oil marketers have assured Nigerians that the price of petrol will crash if they are allowed to lift the product directly from the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Plant.
The emergence of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) as the sole off taker from the Dangote Refinery has been mired in controversy.
At a press briefing where the NNPC-Dangote refinery petrol supply deal was announced, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, had disclosed that the Dangote Refinery will only sell to NNPC Ltd.
“From October 1, NNPC Ltd. will commence the supply of about 385,000 bpd of crude oil to the Dangote refinery, to be paid for in Naira,” he had said.
“PMS will only be sold to NNPC, NNPC will then sell to various marketers for now,” he said.
Reacting, the spokesperson for Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Ukadike while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Tuesday, said marketers are now in discussion with the refinery for a possible direct lifting of petrol.
He said: “It is just very simple. It shows that the liberalization of the market is on course, because there is no way Dangote refinery will be producing petrol in Nigeria without considering IPMAN as one of its strategic stakeholders.
“We were even thinking that one of his first points of call was to discuss with IPMAN and not NNPCL, because we can distribute every single drop of products produced by Dangote refinery because we are situated in every nook and cranny of this country. We also possess about 85 per cent of filling stations in Nigeria.
“So, it is pertinent that Dangote should discuss this with independent marketers, and I want you to know that immediately after we discuss and commence direct lifting of product from Dangote, the issue of pricing and differential in pricing will be gone. What we are seeing here is price disparity.
“But if IPMAN becomes independent, prices will drop. Because it will give us the opportunity for possible competition because we will no longer be depending on another source to get products.
“Dangote also opened up to IPMAN when he started producing AGO, diesel. We entered the market and started buying it, and prices of AGO came down. it was around N1600, now it is between N1,000 to N1,100.
“This is a deregulated economy, and every stakeholder and player should be given equal opportunity.”