Marketers of petroleum products in Nigeria reportedly wrote to President Bola Tinubu to complain that the price of Dangote Refinery’s diesel, which is at N900 per litre, is negatively affecting their businesses.
Devakumar Edwin, Vice President, Dangote Industries Limited, disclosed this on X (Twitter) Spaces session organised by Nairametrics.
“Petroleum product marketers in Nigeria have written to President Bola Tinubu to complain that the refinery local prices, which have dropped from N1,200 to N1,000 and now N900 per litre, are impacting their businesses negatively,” he said.
Edwin highlighted some of the challenges facing the Dangote Refinery and its impact on Nigeria’s fuel supply and prices.
According to him, the refinery struggles to sell about 29 tankers of diesel per day due to low patronage from local petroleum product importers.
“As a result of this poor local patronage, the refinery exports most of its diesel and aviation fuel,” he said.
“We’re importing most of our crude oil from as far as the US and Brazil, and we’re exporting almost all of our production, including our diesel and jet fuel. The importers are practically refusing to buy from us.”
READ ALSO: King Charles III invites Tinubu over climate change funding
Edwin had earlier said Dangote Refinery products would be exported if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other petroleum dealers in the country refused to patronise it.
“We have been exporting aviation fuel, we have been producing kerosene, we have been producing diesel, but yesterday, we started the production of PMS. So, that was the last stage. The only thing now left out is petrochemicals.”
“So, the good news for the country is we have started producing PMS from our refinery,” he had said on a radio programme.
Asked if the petrol would be sold locally, Edwin replied, “Well, I explained how there has been a kind of a blockade from lifting our products within the country. The traders have been trying to block (it), and so now we have been exporting our petroleum products. PMS, we are ready to pump in as much as possible to the country.
“But if the traders or NNPC are not buying the product, obviously, we will end up exporting the PMS as we are doing with the aviation jet and diesel,” he said.
Edwin lamented that Dangote Refinery started facing different challenges it never expected when the refinery was set to commence operations.