By Adedapo Adesanya
Dangote Refinery has denied that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has lifted its newly refined Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol and set the price at N897 per litre.
In a statement shared by Mr Anthony Chiejina, the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer of the Dangote group, the firm said its attention had been drawn to a headline published in a national daily that it was selling at the quoted price.
It clarified that the state oil firm, which it will exclusively sell to, had not begun lifting and distributing the fuel yet.
“We would like to state that NNPC has not commenced lifting of refined Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, from our Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
“Therefore, the issue of fixing the price of petrol lifted from our refinery does not arise, as we are yet to finalize our contract with NNPC.
“The PMS market is strictly regulated, which is known to all oil marketers and stakeholders in the sector, hence we can not determine, fix, or influence the product price, which falls under the purview of relevant government authorities.
“We urge the public to disregard the headline as it is misleading and does not represent the true position in this matter.
“We are guaranteeing Nigerians of exceptionally high-quality petroleum products that will be readily available all over the country,” the statement said.
Earlier this week, the President of the group and majority share owner in the refinery, Mr Aliko Dangote said the price of the commodity would be decided by President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Executive Council (FEC), which meets every Monday.
“It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the federal executive council led by President Tinubu.
“As soon as it is finalised, once we finish with NNPCL, which can be today, can be tomorrow we are ready to roll into the market,” Mr Dangote said.
The price of petrol has skyrocketed since May last year when President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural address, declared an end to petrol subsidy.
Business Post reports that Nigeria has been hit with its worst fuel scarcity yet with the fuel selling for N855 at NNPC retail stations and N897 -N1,000 across other stations, all laden with long, tiring queues.
