Major oil marketers are to begin the direct purchase of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery between Thursday and next week.
This is as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited pulls out as sole off-taker of the product from the $20bn plant.
Multiple sources from NNPC and the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria confirmed on Tuesday that NNPCL was no longer the sole off-taker of Dangote petrol, giving room for other players in the downstream to buy products directly from the Dangote refinery.
This came as unconfirmed reports stated that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had released new petrol prices, which are higher than the current pump prices in various locations nationwide.
The spokesman of NMDPRA, George Ene-Ita, did not confirm the development when contacted on Tuesday night. He also did not reply to the text message sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, oil marketers said the decision of NNPC to stop being the sole off-taker of petrol from the Dangote refinery means that the Federal Government has systematically stopped subsidy on petrol completely.
On September 25, it was exclusively reported that the Federal Government might spend about N236bn monthly to subsidise petrol imported through NNPC and the one that was solely off-taken by NNPC from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
The report showed that NNPC was shouldering a subsidy of about N3.3bn daily on Dangote petrol, meaning in 30 days it might spend N99bn to subsidise Dangote petrol to marketers.
But by halting its position as the sole off-taker of Dangote petrol, the national oil company may save this sum.
Recall that the Federal Government had stated severally that only NNPC would off-take petrol from Dangote refinery after the company commenced the sale of PMS in September.
While stating that crude would be sold to Dangote in naira from October 1, the government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance in a recent statement, said, “In return, the Dangote refinery will supply PMS (petrol) and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market to be paid in naira.
“Diesel will be sold in naira by the Dangote refinery to any interested off-taker. PMS will only be sold to NNPC. NNPC will then sell to various marketers for now. All associated regulatory costs (NPA, NIMASA, etc.) will also be paid in naira. We are also setting up a one-stop shop that will coordinate service provision from all regulatory agencies, security agencies, and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth implementation of this initiative.”
A very senior official with a major oil marketing firm confirmed on Tuesday that dealers had yet to start the direct purchase of petrol from Dangote refinery but stated that NNPC had ceased to be the sole off-taker of Dangote petrol.
“It is not true that major marketers have started lifting PMS from the Dangote refinery. Rather we were made to understand that the directive to start buying directly from them (Dangote refinery) was given today (Tuesday),” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, stated.
