The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has expressed concerns over the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) pricing of petrol lifted from the Dangote Refinery.

IPMAN National Welfare Officer, John Kekeocha, spoke on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday, questioning the logic behind selling Dangote Refinery petrol at a higher price than imported products.

Kekeocha asked, “If NNPC can sell Dangote products higher than the imported products then it doesn’t make sense. What is the celebration we are having all these while then?”

NNPCL began loading petrol from the Dangote Refinery on Sunday, stating it purchased the petrol at N898 per litre. However, IPMAN notes that NNPCL retail outlets in Lagos previously sold petrol for around N855, but now sell Dangote petrol for N950 per litre in Lagos and N1,019 in Borno.

However, Dangote Refinery denied selling petrol to the NNPCL at N898. A spokesman for the refinery Anthony Chiejina in a statement late Sunday described the claim by the NNPCL as “misleading and mischievous”.

“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,” Chiejina said.

NNPCL insisted that it got petrol from Dangote Refinery at N898 per litre and challenged the latter to release the price it sold petrol. The NNPCL further released a breakdown of pricing it sell Dangote petrol at its filling stations across the country.

Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20bn facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day.

The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.

The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational. The country is heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of the essential commodities.

Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol tripled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023, from around ₦200/litre to over ₦1000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.