NNPC Ends Special Deal with Dangote Refinery

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has stopped its special deal to buy petrol only from Dangote Refinery. A company official told PREMIUM TIMES, “Yes, it is true. We can no longer continue to bear that burden.”

This change means other companies can now buy petrol directly from Dangote Refinery at the current market prices. This is a big change from before.

Earlier, NNPC was buying petrol from Dangote at N898.78 per litre and selling it to other companies at N765.99 per litre, which meant NNPC was losing about N133 per litre. From September 15 to 30, NNPC got about 103 million litres of petrol from the refinery. However, the refinery was only able to fill 2,207 of the 3,621 trucks that NNPC sent.

This situation began to change after Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, said in September that Dangote Refinery was starting to make petrol and that NNPC would buy all of it.

However, NNPCL’s spokesperson, Femi Soneye, later said that Dangote Refinery wasn’t the only place NNPC could buy products from. He explained that NNPC and other companies could buy any product from any refinery on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis, like how diesel and kerosene are sold.

Soneye also mentioned that prices for petrol from any refinery, including Dangote, are decided by global markets, not just by where it’s made. He stated, “There is no promise that making petrol in Nigeria will always be cheaper than the international price.”

Lastly, he clarified that NNPC would only buy all the petrol from Dangote if it was cheaper than the market price in Nigeria. He assured that all refineries in Nigeria are free to sell their products to anyone they choose.