Petrol marketers challenge NNPC to fix its three refineries saying it will end Dangote monopoly

NIGERIA'S federal government has been challenged by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (Ipman) to fix all three refineries owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to end the current monopoly of the Dangote Group.

At the moment, the NNPC has three refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna but none of them are working, making the country wholly dependent on the new Dangote refinery in Lagos. Over recent months, petrol prices have soared in Nigeria, pushing up the price of everything else as supply struggles to keep up with demand.

Of late, the federal government has granted permission to petroleum marketers to lift petrol directly from the Dangote refinery without going through NNPC. After several days of battling the crude supply crisis, the Dangote refinery commenced the sale of petrol on September 15, selling to only NNPC, which served as a middleman between the refinery and the marketers.

However, the supply chain was not as effective as planned, prompting independent marketers to demand direct transactions with the $20bn refinery. Similarly, the issue of pricing remains a contentious one as the NNPC suddenly increased the pump price of petrol to N1,030 per litre, leading to queues resurfacing in filling stations across the country.

Looking for a solution to the crisis, yesterday, the federal government confirmed that the NNPC would no longer be the sole off-taker of Dangote fuel. Finance minister Wale Edun, said an implementation committee was set up by the government to oversee the sale of crude oil to Dangote and other local refineries in naira.

He added: “The committee is pleased to report a successful transition of operations in line with the directive issued by the Federal Executive Council. This directive has established a robust framework for local production and distribution of crude oil and refined products for local consumption in naira.

“With this mechanism now in full operation, along with the commencement of local production, we are well-positioned to transition to a fully deregulated market for all petroleum products. Moving forward, petroleum product marketers are now able to purchase petrol directly from local refineries without the intermediary role of NNPC.

However, Ipman challenged the NNPC to stop the seeming monopoly of the Dangote refinery by completing government-owned refineries. Chinedu Ukadike, Ipman's publicity secretary, said the NNPC should rise to crash the pump price of petrol if the Dangote price was too high.

He noted that Dangote would fix its prices in accordance with the price of crude oil in the international market. According to Mr Ukadike, the NNPC can sell petrol at N750 per litre if the Port Harcourt refinery and others resume operations.