Aliko Dangote spoke on Tuesday about the pricing of fuel produced at his 650,000 barrels per day refinery. The refinery owner stated that as soon as his company finalizes protocols with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the product will be available.
“Our PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) can be in filling stations within the next 48 hours, depending on NNPCL,” he said. Asked to speak on the pricing of petrol from his refinery, Dangote said, “It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“As soon as it is finalised, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market.
He declared that “it’s a celebration day” for Nigerians and assured all citizens that they “are now going to have good petrol while the engines of your vehicles will last longer. You will not be having an engine issue, which a lot of us were having. It won’t happen at all”.
“The quality here will match that of anywhere in the world; US, America, we will make sure that nobody will beat us in terms of quality,” Dangote said. Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20 billion facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day.
The refinery, which was previously hampered by regulatory disputes, wants to reach full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun to deliver diesel and aviation fuel to the country’s marketers, as well as petrol.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is facing energy issues, with all of its state-owned refineries inoperable. The country relies significantly on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-owned NNPCL being the primary importer of these important commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol tripled since the removal of subsidies in May 2023, from around ₦200/litre to about ₦869/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
