The News Chronicles understands that marketers have yet to obtain petrol from Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) lifted on Sunday.
Under the auspices of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), oil marketers stated on Tuesday that unresolved pricing concerns are one of the main reasons their members have not yet removed Dangote petrol from NNPC.
The national president of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, emphasized that although the refinery is capable of producing petrol on-site, marketers are still unable to obtain the product because of a disagreement over price, which creates instability in the gasoline supply chain.
“We have not been supplied petrol from Dangote Refinery as we wait for the NNPC on pricing,” he stated.
Three days after removing the product from the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refining capacity, Mohammed Lawal, a petroleum dealer affiliated with one of the largest downstream companies, stated that markets have not yet received the go-ahead from NNPC for Dangote petrol.
“We are still selling old stocks of petrol. There is still so much uncertainty about pricing or when we will lift Dangote petrol,” Lawal told reporters.
On Monday, September 16, NNPC disclosed the fuel price, which is produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and is also referred to as premium motor spirit (PMS).
The costs, which varied based on the region and ranged from N950 to N1,019 per litre, provoked responses from both the private and oil industries.
According to the quote, the refinery’s gantry price per tonne was N736, or $0.55 per litre. Per the NNPC, the price of a litre of fuel is N898.78 at the official exchange rate of N1,637.59 to the dollar.
In addition to the landing cost from refineries, NNPC stated that suppliers must also pay statutory and regulatory taxes for every litre of gasoline. These fees consist of N8.99 for the NMDPRA; N0.97 for the inspection; N15.00 for the distribution cost (in Lagos); and N26.48 for the profit margin. To get the goods to cost between N950 and N1, 019 per litre, they have to be added to the landing cost.
Despite efforts to encourage local refining, oil merchants raised concerns that these high prices might justify the importation of petrol into Nigeria indefinitely.
A prominent marketer disclosed that starting on Tuesday, September 17, foreign fuel ships are anticipated to dock in Nigeria.
“This is because for whatever is going to come out of Dangote refinery, it is either there will not be enough transparency in the allocation of the product or there will be other issues.”
Additionally, some major players might not receive enough production from the factory, in which case they would need to import goods to finish the job. As I have stated, all other things being equal, PMS vessels owned by marketers rather than NNPC should begin entering the nation on September 17 (yesterday), he remarked.
The Nigerian Senior Advocate, Femi Falana, declared that the state oil firm, NNPC, is not allowed to set petrol prices following deregulation.
On Tuesday, Falana said that the NNPC’s move was against Section 205 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He claims, “The market has been deregulated, thus the forces of the market now set petrol pricing instead of the government or NNPC Ltd. Furthermore, their prices are significantly influenced by the currency rate.”
Falana claimed that the NNPC’s actions were a flagrant violation of Section 205 of the PIA, which states that market forces should decide petroleum product prices.
