Price of Petrol Won’t Come Down even with Dangote Refinery – NNPC Limited
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has told Nigerians that the pump price would not likely come down even with the commencement of production of the Premium Motor Spirit at the Dangote Refinery.
NNPC Limited announced new pump prices for different locations across the country before the Dangote Refinery rolled out its products. The Nigerian company has been accused of undermining the local refinery and the Muslim Rights Concern claims that the NNPC Limited is sabotaging the private Lekki-based refinery.
Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer released a statement on Saturday saying that the NNPC Limited can’t lower the price.
The statement partly reads:
- The pricing of petroleum products from any refinery, including the Dangote Refinery Ltd. (DRL), is determined by global market forces. The recent changes in PMS prices have no impact on the DRL or any other domestic refinery’s access to the Nigerian market. In fact, if current prices are perceived as high, it presents an ideal opportunity for the refinery to sell its products at lower prices in the Nigerian market.
- Furthermore, we emphasize that there is no guarantee of lower prices associated with domestic refining compared to any global parity pricing framework, as confirmed by the DRL. The NNPC Ltd. will only fully offtake PMS from the DRL if the market prices of PMS are higher than the pump prices in Nigeria. The DRL and any other domestic refinery are free to sell directly to any marketer on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, which is the current practice for all fully deregulated products. NNPC Ltd. has no desire or intention to become the distributor for any entity in a free market environment, and therefore, the notion of becoming a sole offtaker does not arise.
- The NNPC Ltd. cannot undermine a business in which it holds a billion-dollar stake.
- As an advocacy group for fair and just treatment, MURIC should have verified the facts before making statements that are entirely flawed and has the potential to incite ordinary Nigerians against the NNPC Ltd.
