Local marketers have urged the authorities at Dangote Refinery to disclose the price of fuel from its refinery as they are ready to buy petrol from the facility.
The President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association (PPROOA), Gillis-Harry, who expressed the position of the local marketers, said they can’t simply rely on claims that Dangote Petrol is cheaper than the imported one without any concrete communication from the refinery.
He, however, expressed the readiness of the oil marketers to do business with Dangote Refinery at a price that would be beneficial for both sides.
The statement comes as a direct response to the submission by the Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, Edwin Devakumar, who accused local petroleum marketers of boycotting Dangote Refinery’s petrol despite offering lower prices.
Edwin made the allegation while speaking during an X space session organised by Nairametrics, where he said only 3 percent of local petroleum marketers were interested in buying its recently rolled-out petrol.
However, the PPROOA president emphasized the need to know the cost price from Dangote so they can calculate other logistics demands and avoid running at a loss.
“Why don’t Dangote Refinery give us a price list of what his price is? They cannot tell the price of Dangote Refinery’s PMS which they claim is cheaper than imported petrol.
“What is the price of DRL petrol? How come they are saying marketers are boycotting their petrol? We don’t know how much Dangote is selling its petrol. We are willing to partner with him but we partner on the basis that we would be able to sell with a human face.
“Right now, everybody is crying. The buying price, not the landing price at retail outlets is N870 per liter. In filling stations in some areas N855 or N890. When we buy and take to our retail outlets with all the costs, including logistics, how much would it be?
“But at least, we know what NNPCL is selling fuel, let us also know what Dangote Refinery will sell petrol. We don’t know. We are anxious to know. We want to be able to patronize Dangote Refinery petrol.”
“We are willing to lift Dangote’s petrol. We don’t want him to sell his product at a loss while we don’t want terms of sales that will be strangulated,” he said.
Gillis-Harry further disclosed that in the case of Dangote Refinery’s Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), marketers were mandated to buy at least one million liters which most of them could not afford.
“For instance, in the last trial of Dangote Refinery’s Automotive Gas Oil, we were made to buy a minimum of one million liters of diesel.
“How many retail outlets can afford to pay such an amount of money? That is the challenge because everybody wants to buy one, two or three trucks to take to their retail outlets. That was what we experienced with AGO.”
“We don’t know what we should have with Dangote Refinery PMS because he has never spoken to us or given us a basis to trade with him. However, we are willing and able to work with him,” he added.
