The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria says the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is inconsiderate for selling petrol at N990/litre, stressing that the company enjoyed massive concessions while accessing foreign exchange during its construction.
PETROAN also insisted that imported petrol was cheaper than the N990/litre price of Dangote petrol. Major marketers recently revealed that the landing cost of imported petrol as of October 31, 2024, was N978/litre.
On Sunday, the Dangote refinery alleged that PETROAN and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria were planning to import substandard petroleum products into the country.
Reacting to this in a statement on Monday, PETROAN Publicity Secretary, Joseph Obele, insisted, “PETROAN will sell far less than the current selling rate of PMS in Nigeria when granted an import licence by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.”
Obele said the association had successfully incorporated a strategic business unit called PETROL.
While noting that PETROAN’s drive was solution-centric and patriotic following the pricing instability and turbulence in the downstream sector, the association said the reformative agendas of President Bola Tinubu were seen as inimical to advocates and beneficiaries of the monopolistic market.
“Consumers get the best value for pricing when competition is at its peak, hence Competition should be encouraged. Contrarily to competition, such a market will be exploitative and strictly for profiteering.
“The publication by Dangote refinery that PETROAN will import substandard petroleum products is not coming as a surprise to stakeholders, because such is his usual gimmick for maintaining a monopoly. The publication was coming after PETROAN and IPMAN announced plans to sell far less than the current Selling rate of PMS in Nigeria.
“It is important to set the records straight that PETROAN has never compared the price of Dangote PMS with any, other than the fact that Dangote’s PMS price wasn’t known until this morning at the press release by Dangote Refinery,” Obele said.
