Screenshot of press statement
By Tony Folarin
The management of the Dangote Refinery yesterday disclosed that any imported petrol cheaper than the one produced by the 650,000 barrels per day facility, located in Lagos, is substandard.
In a statement signed by the company’s Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, the Dangote refinery maintained that it was not impossible also that the oil marketers who are behind the narrative that products refined outside Nigeria are cheaper, are conniving with international traders to turn the country into a dumping ground for low quality products.
The company further claimed that it had lately refrained from engaging in media fights, but was now constrained to respond to what it described as the recent ‘misinformation’ being circulated by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), among others.
Some oil marketers had at the weekend revealed that the price of petrol, produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was between N1,015 and N1,028/litre depending on the quantity being purchased, higher than imported fuel.
The oil dealers therefore 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 (NNPC).
But the statement said that both organisations claimed that they can import petrol at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery, explaining that it benchmarked its prices against international prices and believes its prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.
“If anyone claims they can land Premium Motor Spirit (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.
“Unfortunately, the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country,” the Dangote refinery asserted.
