Petrol importers are now selling below the price offered by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, reigniting concerns over competition and policy direction in Nigeria’s downstream oil sector.
According to findings on Wednesday, July 30, some fuel stations in Lagos and Ogun States now dispense petrol at rates below ₦860 per litre.
In comparison, Dangote’s distributors, including MRS and Heyden, maintain pump prices between ₦865 and ₦875.
Depot data showed that while the Dangote refinery sold at ₦820 per litre, importers like Aiteo and Menj offered petrol at ₦815, based on figures from Petroleumprice.ng.
The development follows complaints from importers who had previously incurred losses due to price reductions by the 650,000-barrels-per-day Dangote refinery. Now, they appear to be striking back with competitive pricing to stay afloat.
Chinedu Ukadike, National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, confirmed the price shifts.
“Depot owners are dropping their petrol prices. Some of them are selling ₦815, some are selling ₦817, while Dangote is selling ₦820. NNPC is still selling at ₦825; it has not dropped its prices yet,” he disclosed.
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Ukadike defended the trend as healthy market dynamics. “This is the beauty of the liberalisation of the market. That is why we opined that the President should not ban anybody from importing petroleum products,” he stated.
But Alhaji Aliko Dangote sees things differently. He warned that continued imports were discouraging local refining.
“The Nigeria First policy announced by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, should apply to the petroleum product sector and all other sectors,” he said.
He added, “And to make matters worse, we are now facing increased dumping of cheap, often toxic petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America.”
He further claimed that fuel from Russia, bought at discounted rates, was hurting Nigeria’s refiners. “Due to the price caps on the Russian petroleum products, discounted petroleum products produced in Russia or with discounted Russian crude find their way to Africa, severely undercutting our local production,” he said.
Nonetheless, marketers rejected any notion of a ban, urging the government to allow market forces to operate freely.