The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has suspended its discounted fuel supply scheme following the discovery of a racket involving some affiliate marketers and strategic partners who have been diverting subsidised petroleum products for profit.
Investigations revealed that certain marketers granted access to discounted products, meant to ensure affordability and stable supply across retail outlets, had been redirecting loaded trucks to unregistered third-party marketers. The scheme was originally introduced to help registered partners maintain stable profit margins amid price competition from importers while guaranteeing nationwide availability of Dangote products.
However, the marketers were found to be bypassing the distribution chain by allowing unregistered marketers to use their Authority To Collect (ATC) loading tickets, enabling them to profit from the price differential without incurring legitimate operational costs. The diverted products were often resold at market rates significantly higher than the agreed subsidised prices, undermining the objectives of the scheme and distorting the downstream market.
In response, the refinery has suspended the discounted pricing scheme effective July 13, 2025, as disclosed in a letter to strategic partners signed by the Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Fatima Dangote.
The management noted that some marketers were reselling products directly from the refinery tarmac below official gantry prices, threatening the long-term sustainability of operations. Despite several engagements with partners, the abuse of the discount scheme reportedly became widespread.
The letter stated, “In our drive to ensure the distribution and retail sale of DPRP refined petroleum products across your service stations nationwide, DPRP commenced the strategic partnership scheme with the sole aim of ensuring consumers nationwide have access to affordable and clean petroleum products. Unfortunately, over the last few months, DPRP has been receiving unprecedented complaints of Strategic Partners selling their ATCs at the refinery below the prevailing PMS gantry product price.”
The company clarified that all outstanding Product Release Notes (PRNs) issued at the discounted rate would remain valid for loading, and payments completed before the suspension date would be honoured at the agreed discounted rate. It further stressed that all retail stations must continue to adhere to recommended pump prices to maintain uniformity and prevent further market distortion.
Despite the suspension, the Dangote Refinery emphasised that the strategic partnership scheme would not be scrapped entirely, adding that it is exploring new incentive and reward structures for its partners.
Providing further context, oil and gas analyst Olatide Jeremiah explained that affiliate marketers with loading access had been reselling products to non-registered marketers for quick profits. According to him, some marketers exploited the discounted price structure, reselling products below gantry prices but above the discounted rates, bypassing retail distribution while maintaining profitable margins.
Market checks show that non-affiliated marketers who rely on imported fuel continue to sell at similar price ranges as Dangote’s registered marketers despite not benefitting from the subsidised scheme. Recently, several depots aligned their ex-depot prices with the refinery’s latest adjustments, offering prices around N820 per litre, down from N835 earlier in the week.
While the refinery did not disclose the names of defaulting marketers, its current list of strategic partners includes MRS Oil, Heyden Petroleum, Ardova Plc, Hyde Energy, Optima Energy, Techno Oil, TotalEnergies, Garima Petroleum, Sunbeth Energies, Sobaz Nigeria Ltd, Virgin Forest Energy, Sixxco Oil Ltd, NU Synergy Ltd, and Soroman Nigeria Ltd.
The Dangote Refinery maintained that it is committed to ensuring transparent and sustainable supply of petroleum products nationwide and will provide further updates on the restructuring of the discounted pricing scheme in due course.
