Dangote Group has denied reports that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently lifting petrol from its refinery at N897 per liter.
The group’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina, in a statement on Thursday, said that the company is unable to set the price of petrol until it finalises its arrangement with the NNPCL.
Chiejina said the attention of the group has been drawn to a headline, ‘NNPC lifts Dangote Petrol, sells at N897 per liter.’
“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 finalise our contract with NNPC,” the statement read in part.
The company also noted that “the PMS market is strictly regulated, which is known to all oil marketers and stakeholders in the sector,” therefore, “we cannot determine, fix, or influence the product price, which falls under the purview of relevant government authorities.”
It urged the public to disregard the erroneous headline and reassured Nigerians of the group’s commitment to transparency and fairness in their operations.
It could be recalled that the Group Chief Executive Officer, Aliko Dangote, had revealed that the Federal Executive Council headed by President Bola Tinubu was working on a new pricing arrangement for petrol produced from the Dangote Refinery.
On Tuesday, the facility producing 650,000 barrels per day officially launched its refined petrol.
Dangote announced that the product will be available in filling stations in the next 48 hours, subject to the country’s national regulations.
“It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“As soon as it is finalised, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market,” he said.
Hours after Dangote’s comments, NNPCL reportedly directed its retail outlets to raise the pump price of petrol to N855 per liter.