Dangote said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will determine the pricing of petrol produced at his 650,000 barrels per day facility.
Lagos – Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote has presented the first sample of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
Dangote made this presentation on Tuesday in a broadcast at his refinery situated in the Ibeju-Lekki Area of Lagos State.
The 650,000-capacity refinery engaged in a test run of the product.
“I would like to salute the people of Nigeria and the government of President Bola Tinubu for giving us the platform for growth, development, and prosperity. I also want to thank him personally for creating the idea of the Naira for crude. Doing that will give Naira stability.
“As we have this refinery working, it will show the true consumption of Nigeria; we can track every loaded truck and ship,” he said.
He also said that his refinery will meet the demands of not only Nigerians but also sub-Saharan Africa.
Dangote said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will determine the pricing of petrol produced at his 650,000 barrels per day facility.
The refinery owner said as soon as his company finalises modalities with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the product will hit the market.
“Our PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) can be in filling stations within the next 48 hours depending on NNPCL,” he said.
Asked to speak on the pricing of petrol from his refinery, Dangote said, “It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“As soon as it is finalised, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market.”
He declared that “it’s a celebration day” for Nigerians and assured all citizens that they “are now going to have good petrol while the engines of your vehicles will last longer. You will not be having an engine issue, which a lot of us were having. It won’t happen at all”.
“The quality here will match that of anywhere in the world; US, America, we will make sure that nobody will beat us in terms of quality,” Dangote said.
Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20bn facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day.
The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational. The country is heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol tripled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023, from around ₦200/litre to about ₦1000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Amid a lingering fuel scarcity and crisis, petrol prices on dispensing machines of government-backed NNPCL stations in Lagos and Abuja on Tuesday showed N855 per litre, cementing claims that the price has been reviewed upward to reflect the nation’s current foreign exchange woes and fuel landing cost hassles.
An NNPC spokesman noted that he was not aware, but said he would find out.
Other filling stations adjusted their price to N897 per litre on Tuesday morning.
Fuel prices have dwindled between N580 per litre to N700 per litre since Mr Tinubu became president and announced the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023. But in recent weeks, the nation has suffered an acute fuel scarcity that led the few stations with fuel to sell at exorbitant prices above N900 per litre while black market prices exceeded N1,000.
The Federal Government has denied a report that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources had ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to sell fuel at ₦1,000 per litre.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Communication, to the Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, Nnemaka Okafor, on Tuesday, the FG declared that the report was concocted and ill-conceived to sow discord and confusion in the oil industry.
The report claimed that Lokpobiri gave the NNPCL the directive.However, the minister stressed that the FG had never interfered with petroleum pricing with NNPCL.The statement read, “The Federal Government is compelled to address the outright falsehoods currently being circulated on social media, which claim that the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to inflate petroleum prices above the approved pump price.
“We categorically condemn these claims as baseless, malicious, and a deliberate attempt to incite public discontent. We challenge anyone in possession of any evidence written documents, audio, or video recordings-that support these fabrications to make it public.
“Such a claim is entirely devoid of truth and should be recognised as an intentional effort to mislead the public. It must be stressed that NNPCL operates as an independent entity under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, with a fully empowered Board of Directors.
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources does not, and will not, interfere in the internal decisions of NNPCL, including pricing matters. Any suggestion otherwise is not only incorrect but also reveals a profound misunderstanding of the deregulated nature of Nigeria’s petroleum sector.”