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The Dangote Refinery has debunked claims attributed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited that it bought fuel from the refinery at ₦898 per litre.
Earlier on Sunday, the Chief Spokesperson of the NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, was said to have made the claim while commenting on the lifting of petrol from the facility located in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos.
“We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote Refinery today. The claim that we purchased it at N760 per litre is incorrect. For this initial loading, the price from the refinery was ₦898 per litre,” Soneye was quoted by Daily Trust.
However, reacting to the claim, the Dangote Refinery urged Nigerians to disregard the information which it described as malicious and misleading.
In a statement by Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief Branding and Communications Office of Dangote, the company asked the public to wait for a formal announcement on the pricing by a technical committee of the Federal Government.
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement attributed to NNPCL spokesperson, Mr Olufemi Soneye, that we sell our PMS at ₦898 per litre to the NNPCL.
“This statement is both misleading and mischievous, deliberately aimed at undermining the milestone achievement recorded today, September 15, 2024, towards addressing energy insufficiency and insecurity, which has bedevilled the economy in the past 50 years.
“We urge Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal announcement on the pricing, by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which will commence on October 1, 2024, bearing in mind that our current stock of crude was procured in dollars.
“It should also be noted that we sold the products to NNPCL in dollars with a lot of savings against what they are currently importing. With this action, there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature.
“We assure Nigerians of the availability of quality petroleum products and putting an end to the endemic fuel scarcity in the country,” read the Dangote Refinery statement.
Dangote sends 300 trucks to lift petrol at Dangote Refinery
On Saturday, September 14, 2024, the national oil company deployed no fewer than 300 trucks to the loading gantry of the Dangote Refinery ahead of distribution set to commence on Sunday.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edu, had announced that NNPCL would be the sole buyer of petrol from Dangote Refinery for onward distribution to other local marketers.
He made this known at the Technical Sub-Committee meeting on the sale of crude oil to local refineries in naira in Abuja on Friday, where he was represented by Zacch Adedeji, Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).