Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Sunday engaged in a war of words over the actual price of the petrol from the 650,000 barrel per day refinery of Aliko Dangote.
The war began on Sunday afternoon following the commencement of loading by NNPC trucks at the Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State refinery.
It started when the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, revealed that the loading price of petrol from Dangote Refinery stood at N898 per litre.
This followed a false leak to a segment of the media by an interested party that the fuel was sold to NNPC by Dangote Refinery for N766.
Soneye, who spoke with Daily Trust on the false figure released by the interested source, said: “We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote Refinery today.
“The claim that we purchased it at N760 per litre is incorrect.
“For this initial loading, the price from the refinery was N898 per litre.”
Reacting to this position later on Sunday, the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, as the company claimed earlier, said the price of its product would be determined by a committee set up by President Bola Tinubu.
Chiejina said in a statement on Sunday: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPC spokesperson, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at N898 per litre to the NNPC.
“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 bedeviled 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.
“It should also be noted that we sold the products to NNPC in dollars with a lot of savings against what they are currently importing.
“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 product and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country.”
This will not be the first time Dangote Refinery will say the price of its product would be determined by the Federal Government, a claim that NNPC faulted late on Sunday with a template of the pricing attached to it.
Soneye added in the statement: “The NNPC Ltd also wishes to state that, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), PMS prices are not set by Government, but negotiated directly between parties on an arms length.
“The NNPC Ltd can confirm that it is paying Dangote Refinery in USD for September 2024 PMS offtake, as Naira transactions will only commence on October 1st, 2024.
“The NNPC Ltd assures that if the quoted pricing is disputed, it will be grateful for any discount from the Dangote Refinery, which will be passed on 100% to the general public.
“Attached to this statement are the estimated pump prices of PMS (obtained from the Dangote Refinery) across NNPC Retail Stations across the country, based on September 2024 pricing.”
According to the pricing template attached to the statement by Soneye, petrol from Dangote Refinery for September will sell for N950.22 in Lagos State, which is the lowest, and N1,019.22 in Borno State, the highest.
For Oyo and Ogun States, it will go for N960.22 per litre, while in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and Sokoto, Kaduna and Kano States have a price template of N992.22.
Petrol users in Rivers and Imo States are expected to pay N980.22 per litre.
SOURCE: The Eagle Online