The Dangote Refinery has stated that Nigeria’s regulatory body, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), lacks the necessary laboratory facilities to detect substandard petroleum products being imported into the country.
In a statement on Sunday, November 3, Anthony Chiejina, the company’s Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, warned that the importation of substandard fuel could undermine local production. This comment followed accusations from the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) that Dangote Refinery is inflating fuel prices.
“We had lately refrained from engaging in media fights,” Chiejina explained, “but we are constrained to respond to the recent misinformation being circulated by IPMAN, PETROAN, and other associations. Both organisations claim that they can import PMS at lower prices than what is being sold by the Dangote Refinery.”
Chiejina stressed that Dangote’s prices are “benchmarked against international prices” and are competitive. He added, “If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low-quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.”
The refinery shared its PMS rates, adjusted to support the market, at N960 per litre for ship sales and N990 per litre for trucks, which are lower than the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) rates of N971 and N990, respectively. “In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased,” Chiejina noted.
He further raised concerns over a foreign trading company acquiring a nearby depot to blend and sell potentially substandard products. “This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria,” Chiejina said, calling for government protection similar to that in the US and Europe, where tariffs protect key industries.
Dangote reaffirmed its commitment to “providing affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum products in Nigeria,” urging Nigerians to “disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty.”