A historic moment in Nigeria’s energy sector unfolded today as petrol refined at the Dangote Refinery began to hit filling stations across the country.
This marks the first time in nearly three decades that a significant portion of Nigeria’s fuel needs will be met domestically.
The country despite spending billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance of its four official refineries for over two decades has been unable to get them to work.
The $20 billion refinery, built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos, began processing petrol last week. However, disagreements over offtake rights and pricing had delayed distribution.
BusinessDay confirmed that the new arrangement from the NNPC and Dangote Refinery negotiations, spanning more than one week, would allow Nigerians to get petrol at the current retail price between N855 and N897 per litre and represents an average under-recovery of about N130 to NNPC.
“NNPC Trading Limited will continue to import a shortfall of 15 million litres to meet Nigeria’s daily demand for petrol estimated at 40-50 million litres a day,” a source in the downstream said.
He added, “Each marketer will take a maximum of 50 trucks daily; They will buy at a price of N765.99 through the NNPC Trading Limited, including their costs movement and sell at the current pump price of N855 to N897 depending on the location per litre”.
Oil marketers confirmed that the NNPC had started moving trucks to the plant to load products, adding that the national oil company would also load PMS using its vessels.
Olufemi Adewole, executive secretary, of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) said: “We have been lifting diesel (AGO) and aviation fuel (jet fuel) and we look forward to lifting petrol (PMS).”
On pricing, he said: “We await clarity in respect to the pricing mode, and once that is clarified, we’ll do what is needed to meet the energy needs of Nigerians.”
Olufemi Soneye, chief corporate communications officer, NNPC, who confirmed the readiness of the company to start lifting petrol today said: “NNPC Ltd has started deploying our trucks and vessels to the Dangote Refinery to lift PMS in preparation for the scheduled lifting date of September 15th, as set by the refinery.
“Our trucks and personnel are already on-site, ready to begin lifting. We expect more trucks, and the deployment will continue throughout the weekend so we can start loading as soon as the refinery begins operations on September 15, 2024.”
Soneye hinted that at least 100 trucks had already arrived at the refinery for the petrol lifting, adding that the number of trucks could increase to 300 by Saturday evening.
“I am glad to announce that all agreements have been finalised, and the first batch of Premium Motor Spirit will begin loading on Sunday,” Zacch Adedeji, head of Nigeria’s tax authority, said.
Adedeji said that in exchange for crude oil, Dangote will supply gasoline and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market, with transactions settled in the local naira currency.
The Nigerian government previously said it would facilitate the sale of crude to Dangote in naira.
Dangote’s production is expected to impact billions of dollars of trade in fuel markets regionally and beyond as Nigeria remains a global demand sink for the fuel, receiving almost 250,000 barrels a day in shipments last year, mostly from Europe, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd.
