- Safiu Kehinde
Dangote Group has raised alarm over depot facility allegedly set up beside its refinery by an undisclosed international firm to blend substandard petroleum products into the market.
The group made this disclosure in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Anthony Chiejina, on Sunday.
While clearing the air surrounding the price hike allegations made against the refinery by oil marketers, Dangote disclosed the depot was established to manufacture substandard petroleum products and dump into the market in competition with it’s refinery’s quality production.
“At the same time, an international trading company has recently hired a depot facility next to the Dangote Refinery, with the objective of using it to blend substandard products that will be dumped into the market to compete with Dangote Refinery’s higher quality production.” The group wrote.
Meanwhile, as against claims of price hike by the International Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dangote maintained that its pricing was benchmarked against international prices as it even sell below NNPC’s N971 pricing.
The group claimed that other prices lower than that of the refinery is nothing short of imported substandard petroleum products which puts Nigerians health at risk.
Dangote, however faulted the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) over lack of laboratory facilities to detect substandard petroleum products.
“We benchmark our prices against international prices, and we believe our prices are competitive relative to the price of imports.
“If anyone claims they can land PMS at a price cheaper than what we are selling, then they are importing substandard products and conniving with international traders to dump low quality products into the country, without concern for the health of Nigerians or the longevity of their vehicles.
“Unfortunately, the regulator (NMDPRA) does not even have laboratory facilities which can be used to detect substandard products when imported into the country.
“Post deregulation, NNPC set the pace by selling PMS to domestic marketers at N971 per litre for sale into ships and at N990 for sale into trucks. This set the benchmark for our pricing, and we have even gone lower to sell at N960 per litre for sale into ships while maintaining N990 per litre for sale into trucks.
“In good faith, and in the interest of the country, we commenced sales at these prices without clarity on the exchange rate that we will use to pay for the crude purchased.” Dangote stated.
Meanwhile, the group warned against the impact of the imported substandard petroleum products on the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria.
It cited how the United States and Europe had impose high tariffs on EVs and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.
Dangote Group, however, charged the public to disregard the oil marketers’ claim of its alleged price hike as it reaffirmed its commitment to providing affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum products in Nigeria.
“This is detrimental to the growth of domestic refining in Nigeria. We should point out that it is not unusual for countries to protect their domestic industries in order to provide jobs and grow the economy.
“For example, the US and Europe have had to impose high tariffs on EVs and microchips in order to protect their domestic industries.
“While we continue with our determination to provide affordable, good quality, domestically refined petroleum product in Nigeria, we call on the public to disregard the deliberate disinformation being circulated by agents of people who prefer for us to continue to export jobs and import poverty.” The statement added.