* As NNPC buys N766/litre
OIL MARKETERS have demanded direct access to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from the Dangote refinery, criticising the firm grip of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on the market.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, said the market should be open for all in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller commitment earlier made by the corporation.
The Federal Government had said on Friday that for now, only NNPCL would buy directly from Dangote Refinery while interested marketers would but from NNPCL.
But Ukadike said the market should be liberalised.
“It should be open for all in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller comments made by the NNPC. We are also looking at how to build our logistics and come up with our price,” he stated.
Also, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, raised concerns over the risks of creating a new domestic monopoly in the oil and gas sector.
Gillis-Harry said, “Right now, even on Saturday, that business (petrol) is going to start rolling out tomorrow (Sunday), we don’t know what the price might be. Nobody has informed us about anything; we are not aware of what the government is doing.
“We don’t know any of the pricing templates yet or the matrix that will bring about the pricing template. We have been asking Dangote or anybody that is in charge of this transaction to be transparent, but somehow, we have not got any of that information.
“We are about to leave NNPC monopoly from importation and now we are also going to have that in a domestic environment, that portends danger for the industry.”
Oil marketers confirmed that the NNPC had started moving trucks to the plant to load products, adding that the national oil company would also load PMS using its vessels.
They also noted that the price of Dangote petrol had not been made public yet, stating that independent marketers would only buy the commodity from the NNPC for now.
The National Operations Controller of IPMAN, Mustapha Zarma, said, “Independent marketers have not been given any offer by Dangote to ascertain the actual off-take price.
“So, for now independent marketers will be taking the product from NNPC, but hopefully in the next few weeks, we may start getting it directly from Dangote.”
Zarma noted that the NNPC would offtake the product from the Dangote refinery using tankers and ships that would move the PMS to coastal depots in Warri and Port Harcourt.
Sources said that the Dangote refinery would sell its petrol at N766 to the NNPC.
Multiple sources from the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPC, and major energy marketers confirmed that the deal to supply crude to the Dangote refinery in naira was a key factor that led to the PMS price.
“What we are going to see based on the deal between NNPC and Dangote is similar to the DSDP (Direct Sale of crude oil and Direct Purchase of petroleum products) transactions that used to exist between NNPC and foreign refineries in the past.
“And this has really impacted positively on the price of petrol that Dangote is selling to NNPC, because the cost is around N766/litre. But I can’t tell how much NNPC is going to sell to marketers now,” a major marketer said.
Reacting to the Dangote fuel price, a senior IPMAN official said if marketers could get the product at N766, they would need to add the cost of transportation, levies, and other margins.
He said, “Give and take, we can sell at N790 in Lagos. In the far north, it may be N820 per litre because of the distance.”
