Dangote Refinery has debunked the claims by the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that it sold petrol to the company at N898 per litre.
The spokesman of the NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, had in an interview with Premium Times newspaper state that the NNPCL paid N898 per litre to the Dangote Refinery.
“What you need to understand is that it’s market forces that determine the price. For instance, now Brent is $70 let’s say tomorrow now, Brent goes to $80, you should note that the price will also increase because those are the market forces.
“But today, for this initial 16.8 million litre that was given to us, it was at the rate of N898,” Soneye had said.
However, in a swift reaction to the position of the NNPCL, Dangote’s Group’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, in a statement issued late Sunday evening said that the NNPCL statement was “mischievous” and “misleading.”
Dangote group expressed shock noting that the statement from the NNPCL was unfortunate and “deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedevilled the economy in the past 50 years.”
The Dangote group noted that the current products being churned out from its refinery was bought in dollar and in compliance with at prevailing international oil pricing parametres. It further noted that it will determine in conjuction with the presidential committee set up by President Bola Tinubu the appropriate price for local market in line with the Naira denominated oil purchase agreement with the Nigerian government.
The full statement reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Mr Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898 per litre to the NNPCL.
“This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedevilled the economy in the past 50 years.”
“We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.”
“With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature.
“We assure Nigerians of availability of quality petroleum products and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country.”
