The Dangote Refinery, located in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State, has started loading Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, into trucks owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC). However, the price at which the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery will sell the product to oil marketers and the public remains uncertain.
NNPC, in a tweet on Saturday, announced the deployment of hundreds of trucks to the refinery for PMS loading, with over a hundred already mobilized. This comes after an initial 10 trucks drove into gantries for petrol loading, starting off this process. The refinery has 86 gantries capable of loading 86 trucks at once.
This development marks a milestone in Nigeria’s quest for self-sufficiency in petroleum products.
Chinedu Ukadike, National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, emphasized the need for an open market in line with the willing-buyer and willing-seller principle.
On the other hand, Billy Gillis-Harry, President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association, expressed his concern over the potential creation of a new domestic monopoly in the oil and gas sector, citing uncertainty over pricing templates and matrices.
