On Monday, operators in the downstream oil sector urged the Federal Government to step in and ensure the supply of crude oil to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. They expressed concern that marketers were increasingly opting for cheaper imported refined petroleum products instead of patronizing the Dangote refinery.
Furthermore, they criticized international oil companies in Nigeria for selling crude oil to the Dangote refinery at prices higher than the global market rates, labeling this practice as detrimental to the country's interests.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria cited the higher cost of diesel and aviation fuel from the Dangote refinery as the reason behind the reluctance of marketers to embrace these products. In response to the Dangote refinery's claims of exporting 3.5 billion liters of refined products due to the importation of low-quality fuels by some marketers, the National President of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, emphasized that the lack of collaboration between Dangote and IPMAN was impacting the $20bn refinery project.
Maigandi attributed the importation of diesel by operators to the higher cost of Dangote's diesel and aviation fuel. He noted that Dangote had disregarded the advice of marketers to reduce the prices of diesel and aviation fuel to stay competitive in the market.
The IPMAN leader emphasized that if the products from Dangote's refinery were more competitively priced, there would be no incentive for importing the so-called "dirty" fuel.
As per a Dangote Group official who preferred to remain anonymous due to not being authorized to comment on the topic, he said the increase in diesel prices should be attributed to the importation of crude oil from the United States.
The official emphasized that Dangote cannot sell its products below the cost price and also highlighted that international oil companies are impeding Dangote's access to crude oil in an attempt to hinder the refinery's operations.
He said, “If Dangote gets crude oil locally, there wouldn’t be any issue. You know Dangote is importing with dollars. So, there is no way Dangote will sell below the cost price. But these traders are importing dirty fuels from Russia at a cheaper price."
Further talking, he said, “We keep importing crude from the US because the IOCs refuse to sell to us. That’s the problem. If IOCs could be selling to us, we wouldn’t have any crisis; we would be selling at a price everybody would be happy with. Look at what the dollar is saying now; if we are buying crude at a dollar that exchanges for N1,484, how much do you want us to sell? But if we are getting it in Nigeria, the cost will reduce and it will be cheaper."