Dangote Refinery: Petrol Is Now N600 Per Litre
The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has claimed that the Dangote Refinery is wrong for insisting their products will be sold at market price.
Speaking when he appeared on a live broadcast of Nigeria Info FM 99.3 which Ibom Focus monitored on Tuesday, Dr Joseph Obele, the National PRO, PETROAN said the cost of production of petrol was now below N600 per litre.
He said this was because of the fact that the Nigerian government had started selling crude oil to Dangote in Naira.
Owing to these developments, Dr Joseph maintained that Dangote should also consider selling his refined product below the market price to ease the current hardships in Nigeria.
Dr Joseph said: “Scholars of oil sectors have done an analysis and the analysis has shown that the crude for Naira given to Dangote by the Federal Government, cost of production will not go above N600, less than N600. Although the crude oil he imported from the international community, the cost of production will not be above N700.
“But it is wrong for him to say his template for him to fix his refinery selling price is based on and tied to how much the international community is selling. And people are saying the dynamics and the effects and the economic systems at the international market and Nigeria are not the same.
“Dangote should not have fixed his price on the international market. He should have fixed his price on cost of production plus the margin.
“International market (price) in a country where you enjoy so many concessions. While he was building his refinery, the concession he was given for foreign exchange was far less than the official rate to the extent that international experts criticised the concessions given to him. So in Nigeria, where inflation is high, where the minimum wage is poor, Dangote is fixing our buying rate for PMS which is a commodity that every other commodity revolves around. It is wrong for him to say ‘I templated my price based on the international market.”
Ibom Focus had earlier reported that the NNPCL earlier said it had ended its age-long importation of refined petroleum products and is currently purchasing fuel from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other local refineries.
NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, had disclosed this new development on Monday at the ongoing conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos State.
Kyari disclosed that the NNPC would no longer import fuel, as it now buys it from local refineries.
“Today, NNPC does not import any product, we are taking only from domestic refineries,” he was quoted.
He continued: “The point is very far from it and I’m going to speak to it straight. We are very proud part-owners of Dangote refinery, no doubt about it. We saw an opportunity that there is a clear market for at least 300,000 barrels of our production; we know that as time moves on, people will start struggling to find markets for their production.
“It will happen, It’s already happening. Oil is found, as you know, in many unexpected locations across the world and people have choices. Therefore we saw an opportunity to log supply to the domestic refinery, not just Dangote but any other refinery that operates in the country, so it was a very informed business decision.
“Therefore, from day one, we knew that it is to our benefit to supply crude oil to the domestic refinery, so we don’t need to be persuaded; we don’t need anyone to talk to us, there is no need for any pressure from the streets for us to do this. We are already doing this,“ he clarified.
