As the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC LTD) began lifting petrol from the Dangote Refinery yesterday, there has been a simmering feud and back-and-forth on the price of the product from both parties.
The NNPC Ltd said it got the first supply at N898 per litre in contradiction to reports that it got the product at N766.
Spokesman for the state oil corporation, Mr Olufemi Soneye said in a statement on Sunday (yesterday) that the refinery sold petrol to it (NNPC Ltd) for N898 per litre.
“We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote refinery today (yesterday). 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,” Soneye said in an interview.
Responding, the spokesman for the Dangote Group Mr Anthony Chiejina described Soneye’s statement as “both misleading and mischievous” but did not disclose how much it sold the product to NNPC Ltd.
In a statement issued yesterday, Chiejina said: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Mr. Olufemi Soneye that we sold 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 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 NNPCL 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.”
Meanwhile, there was a 38.8 per cent shortfall in the first delivery of petrol from the Dangote Refinery by the NNPC Ltd because the 650,000 barrels per day refinery was scheduled to deliver 25 million litres of petrol to NNPCL but could only deliver 16.8 million litres.
In a letter communicating the shortfall to the NNPCL, Dangote refinery, stated: “This is to formally notify you of the release of twelve thousand, two hundred metric tons (12,200 mt) of premium motor spirit (PMS) from Tank No.3201D at Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Lekki Free Trade Zone, Ibeju Lekki to Messrs. NNPC Trading Limited to be loaded via road trucks.”
Soneye confirmed that the oil company had lifted lifting 16.8 million litres.
