EXCLUSIVE: As Dangote petrol circulates across Nigeria, NNPC to implement new price regime

Having lifted about 103 million litres of petrol from Dangote Refinery between September 15 and 30, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is now set to implement a new pricing regime for the product, those familiar with the matter have told PREMIUM TIMES.

The refinery was able to load 2,207 of 3,621 trucks sent to it within the period under review. The vehicles carried just 102,973,025 litres of the planned 400,000,000 litres of petrol earmarked to be lifted from the refinery at 25 million litres per day. That translated to just 26 percent performance, records seeing by PREMIUM TIMES show.

The NNPC began lifting petrol from Dangote Refinery on September 15 as sole off-taker of the product from the facility.

On that same day, the company announced that it was buying the product from the refinery at N898.78 per litre and then selling it to marketers at N765.99 per litre, shouldering a significant subsidy of almost N133 per litre.

The state oil company then indicated that as consignments from Dangote Refinery are discharged in fueling stations across the country, the price of the product would rise to reflect depot sale price, statutory charges, transportation costs and distribution challenges faced by different regions.

However, despite that announcement, pump prices of petrol at NNPC stations across Nigeria have in the one month hovered around N855 and N897, depending on location.

But NNPC insiders have now told PREMIUM TIMES that with the company gradually exhausting its imported stock of petrol and now relying more on cargoes from Dangote Refinery, the pump price of the product would have to be adjusted upward to reflect that reality.

It is unclear what the new price regime would be. Femi Soneye, the chief communications officer of the NNPC, was not immediately available to provide details of the impending price adjustment. He did not answer or return calls seeking his comment for this story.

However, the company had indicated in a pricing template it released on September 16 that once gantry price from Dangote Refinery and all charges were computed, the price of petrol at its pumps in Lagos would be N950.22 per litre, N980.22 in Rivers State, and N992.22 in Abuja.

The company estimated in that same September 16 template that the product would sell for N999.22 per litre at its stations in Nigeria’s North-western geopolitical zone while in Borno and other North-eastern states, the product would cost an estimated N1,019 per litre.

In Nigeria’s South-east, the company said petrol would cost N980.22 while consumers in South-west states (Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo) would pay N960.22 per litre for the product.

But company insiders said the September 16 estimate is outdated given foreign exchange fluctuations in the country and the rise in crude prices due to the escalating tension in the Middle East.

“With crude now trading for more than $78 per barrel as of Sunday (today) and the naira exchanging for N1,660 to a dollar, there is no way a litre of petrol can sell for below N135 per litre in Nigeria,” the official said.

The NNPC had on September 3 increased the price of petrol at its pumps from from N617 per litre to between N855 and N897, depending on location.