Damilola Shittu – Abuja
There are strong indications that loading of petroleum products at the Dangote refinery will begin next week. Oil marketers in the country have confirmed that they will start lifting Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), from the refinery in few days.
While some revealed that they had started sending trucks to the Lagos-based multi-billion dollar plant to load products from Sunday, others stated that their tankers would hit the refinery any day from next week.
It was also gathered that some dealers are expecting imported petrol before the end of this month.
It was gathered on Friday that the vessels of some major marketers would arrive in the country in the next 10 days.
Although the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, recently announced that only NNPC would lift PMS from the Dangote refinery at the moment, oil marketers stated on Friday that they had already commenced moves to load their trucks with petrol from the plant.
The initial daily supply from the refinery is anticipated to be 25 million litres.
“We should start loading from the plant next week and aside from that, so many marketers are planning to import PMS before the end of the month,” a major marketer, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence due to lack of authorisation to comment on the matter, stated.
The source added, “This means the deregulation of PMS prices has set in fully. Nobody wants to be at the whims and caprices of NNPC again.”
On whether there was an agreement on the price of Dangote petrol, the dealer replied, “The agreement on price has not been reached yet, but what I asked our people was how sure are we that we will get the market if we bring in products at about N1,100/litre?
“They now said many people are fed up with NNPC, adding that there will be an adequate market for the product. So, people should gear up for a price of about N1,200/litre, even from the depots. I know that many are going to bring in products to stimulate competition.
“In fact, for specifics, our imports should arrive in the country in the next 10 days all things being equal. So, we are doing both imports and Dangote, and that is the same with most major marketers. I don’t know which imports are going to come in first, but I know that about three or four major marketers are expecting products.”
Last week, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, declared that the downstream oil sector had been fully deregulated, as the government was not fixing petroleum products’ prices again.
“What is important is that the government is not fixing prices. This sector is deregulated. And we believe that with the availability of products, the price (of petrol) will find its level. And this is important for Nigeria to know.
“There is enough product in the country to be able to meet the demands of Nigerians, there should be no panic buying. And we also believe that Nigerians need to know that the government is not fixing prices. That is what I want to convey to Nigerians,” Lokpobiri had said.
The minister disclosed this after NNPC raised the pump prices of petrol from about N620/litre to as high as N855 and N897/litre depending on the area of purchase.
Another dealer confirmed that plans were being perfected to begin the loading of petrol from the Dangote refinery next week.
The source could not confirm if NNPC would also start loading PMS from Dangote refinery next week.
“I don’t know about NNPC, but I want to confirm to you that from next week, we are going to start loading petrol from that refinery. This is concrete,” the source added.
When asked if NNPC would begin the loading of petrol from the refinery on Sunday, the dealer replied, “I don’t know about NNPC, but I know that we are going to start lifting petrol from there next week.”
The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, confirmed that many marketers had commenced moves to import petrol, as well as load from the Dangote refinery.
He, however, did not state the price of the product being expected from the $20bn Lekki-based refinery, stressing that discussions were still ongoing.
“I cannot tell you the price from Dangote and that of the landing cost for imported products for now. But since the government is now serious about deregulating the downstream oil sector fully, we are also going to start importing PMS,” he said.
The spokesperson for Dangote refinery, Tony Chiejina, had yet to respond to an enquiry on the matter as of when this story was filed.
This came as the spokesperson for the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, debunked claims that the national oil company had started loading petrol from the refinery.
When told that some marketers claimed that NNPC had started lifting petrol from the Dangote refinery and asked to confirm the development, he simply replied, “false.”
Soneye, however, did not respond to enquiries about the cost of PMS being expected from the Dangote refinery and that of crude to be supplied by NNPC to the largest refinery on the continent.
There were earlier reports that the Dangote refinery and the NNPC were to hold discussions on Friday as regards PMS and crude oil prices.
