NNPC lied, we sold our petrol 15% cheaper than imported ones—Aliko Dangote
Maureen Aguta
As Nigerians continue to express dismay on why Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) could be selling petrol from the Dangote Refinery at a higher price than the imported ones, Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has accused the NNPCL of lying to Nigerian on prices of fuel lifted from his refinery in Lagos State.
Dangote, during his recent interview with Bloomberg, noted that the fuel purchased from his refinery on September 15th was priced 15 per cent lower than NNPCL’s imported fuel.
He added that the price fixed by NNPCL was not transparent and it was as a result of high costs spent on importing fuels from foreign countries.
He said: “What is going on is not really a disagreement per se. NNPC bought from us this particular one, on the 15th of September at the international price. Which they also bought over 800,000 metric tons of gasoline imported. The one that they bought from us is cheaper than the one they are importing. So when they announced our price, I don’t whether the guy who did it was authorised or not, but it was not really the real price.”
Dangote further said: “Most likely that is what cost them, including profit, including whatever you know they have never added profit to their cost. And then the other one is the one that they imported but people don’t know how much they spent in terms of the import but their own import is almost or maybe about 15 per cent to 20 per cent more expensive than ours.
“So what they were forced to do is to sell at a ‘basket price’ or they want to remove subsidy, they can announce that they have removed subsidy, which is okay, everybody will adjust to it.”
It had earlier been reported how NNPCL altered the breakdown of the estimated price of petrol bought from the Dangote refinery a few days ago.
Recall that a press statement issued by the NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, on Monday, revealed the estimated pump prices of PMS obtained from Dangote Refinery at its retail stations nationwide, based on September 2024 pricing.
The company had emphasised that the PMS prices were negotiated directly between parties and not set by the government, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The estimated pump price for petrol based on Dangote Refinery’s September 2024 PMS pricing is outlined as follows:
In Sokoto State, the price is set at N999.22, while Katsina State faces challenges with supply. In Borno State, the price is set at N1, 019.22 per litre. In Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, and the FCT, the price is set at N999.22, while it is N950.22 in Lagos and N960.22 in Oyo. It will be sold for N980.22 in Rivers and Imo states.
Soneye had emphasised that PMS prices are not set by the government but negotiated directly between parties on an arm’s length basis, according to PIA Section 206 (1).
However, in another version of the statement released by the company, Advocacy Times observed that the figures that made up the pump price for the locally refined petrol have been adjusted.