Oil marketers have declared that starting the following week, they will begin extracting Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Some disclosed that they will be sending trucks to load products at the multibillion dollar plant in Lagos starting on Sunday, while others said their tankers would arrive at the refinery any day starting next week.
Additionally, it was learned that several shops anticipate receiving gasoline imports before the end of this month.
Oil marketers said on Friday that they had already started the process of loading their trucks with gasoline from the facility, despite the fact that Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, recently declared that only NNPC will lift PMS from the Dangote refinery at this time.
An initial daily supply of 25 million liters is anticipated from the refinery.
A major marketer in Nigeria has confirmed that many marketers plan to import PMS before the end of the month, indicating that deregulation of PMS prices has fully set in. The dealer has not reached an agreement on the price of Dangote petrol, but many people are fed up with NNPC and believe there will be an adequate market for the product. They suggest that people should gear up for a price of about N1,200/litre, even from depots, to stimulate competition. The imports are expected to arrive in the country in the next 10 days, and most major marketers are doing both imports and Dangote. It is unknown which imports will come in first, but about three or four major marketers are expecting products.
Heineken Lokpobiri, the minister of state for petroleum resources (oil), announced last week that the downstream oil industry had completely deregulated as the government was no longer setting the pricing of petroleum goods.
The fact that prices are not being set by the government is crucial. This industry is unregulated. And we think that as long as goods are available, the price of gasoline will stabilize. And Nigeria needs to be aware of this.
Lokpobiri said there shouldn’t be panic shopping since there is enough merchandise in the nation to suit Nigerians’ wants. Furthermore, we think Nigerians should be aware that price fixing is not done by the government. I want Nigerians to understand that.
