Olusegun Ariyo
Nigeria’s petroleum marketers have said that the country cannot rely on Dangote Refinery to satisfy its daily Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) consumption.
Billy Gillis-Harry, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association, PETROAN, disclosed this to journalists in an interview on Monday.
He was speaking amid the Dangote Refinery Petrol price controversy and imminent pump price hike.
On Monday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited released a price list for the sale of Dangote Petrol across its retail outlets nationwide.
The price showed that petrol pumps will rise to around N950 and N1,019.22 per liter in NNPCL outlets.
Reacting to the development, Gillis-Harry said that the high cost of Dangote Petrol and the quantity of supply currently available means Nigeria cannot depend on the company to satisfy its daily consumption which stood at 50 million according to Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s latest data.
He said, “Dangote Refinery is producing about 25 million liters a day. That is just about 15,000 metric tonnes which is less than one cargo.
“And NNPCL has been selling so many cargoes to depot owners, including our members, to distribute to Nigerians previously.
“What it means is that we’re not going to be dependent on the petrol product that is produced in-country. There must be a level of importation to make up for the difference”,
Recall that NNPCL and Dangote Refinery disagreed over the price the latter sold petrol to the state-owned company at the weekend.
