By Kingsley Jeremiah, Abuja
Dangote Refinery, from next week, may begin sale of petroleum products, especially diesel, to local marketers, even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) resumed direct sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
While IPMAN now buys petrol at the ex-depot price of about N600 per litre from NNPCL, the marketers said agreement had been reached to lift about 20 million litres of diesel from the refinery weekly.
The products are to be supplied to the marketers directly from the Lekki-based refinery.Though pricing is yet to be decided, there are indications that the product would sell below the current ex-depot or wholesale price of N1550 per litre.
IPMAN President, Abubakar Shettima-Garima told The Guardian that the marketers had bought PMS from private marketers at a high rate before NNPCL started supplying them.
Although he raised concerns over the need to sustain the move, which started about a week ago, Shettima-Garima noted that if sustained, the development could see the marketers sell product at about N617 per litre in places like Abuja, where private marketers sell at N670 per litre and lower in locations like Lagos.
He said: “This is something new because we were buying the product at the ex-depot price of N640 per litre from a private depot. Now NNPCL is selling to us at the rate of N600 per litre. The difference of N40 is significant.”
According to him, private depot owners would be forced to reduce their prices as soon as they realise that the marketers can get the products directly from the NNPCL.
Shettima -Garima urged the national company to sustain the supply supplies, stressing that the development would impact people living across the state, who usually buy petrol at a higher rate.
Although there were viral reports that the NNPCL had reduced retail pump price for PMS, the product remained the same in most of the company’s retail outlets in Abuja, as the product was trading at N617 per litre and N670 in most private stations.
While diesel is currently selling at about N1,700 per litre, the IPMAN boss said the marketers are expecting that Dangote would sell lower than the current N1,550 ex-depot price, thereby helping the country to record lower prices.
