The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has alerted Nigerians about the operations of a new depot hired by an unnamed international trading company to blend substandard petroleum products in Nigeria.
It said the depot, located adjacent to its operations, was leased for the objective of blending substandard products that would be dumped into the market and bought by unsuspecting Nigerians.
The Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, made the allegation in a press statement on Sunday, stressing that the move threatens the nation’s refining industry and public safety.
The statement was in response to statements credited to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, and other associations that the price of imported fuel is cheaper than what is being sold by the Dangote refinery.
It emphasised that any marketer claiming to sell PMS at a lower price than the current price is importing substandard products in connivance with international traders to flood the country with low-quality products.
Recently, oil marketers revealed that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was between N1,015 and N1,028/litre depending on the quantity being purchased.
Based on this, the dealers vowed to import the commodity and sell it below the Dangote refinery price as well as the price being sold by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Although the refinery had denied the claims by the marketers, on Sunday it alleged that there was connivance with an international firm to blend and dump products into the market to compete with Dangote’s high quality.
The statement read, “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.
“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.”
It further noted the complicity of its regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, in detecting substandard products due to the lack of a functional laboratory facility.
“Unfortunately, the regulator, NMDPRA does not even have laboratory facilities that can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country,” Dangote said.
On its pricing, the $20bn Lekki-based plant announced that it sold petrol at a reduced rate of N960 per litre for supply via ships and N990 per litre for supply via trucks following the recent deregulation of the sector.
It noted that while NNPC had set its prices at N971 for ship-based sales and N990 for truck-based sales, the refinery opted to set its price at N960 for ship sales, keeping the truck rate at N990.
“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,” it stated.
Additionally, the spokesperson emphasised that there is nothing wrong with the Federal Government protecting its local industries, as is the practice in other countries.